From bondella@s054.aone.net.au Mon May 12 09:34:56 1997 Subject: Little Helper From: bondella@s054.aone.net.au (Ella) -------- Title: Little Helper (1/1) Author: (T)ruth Rating: G Classification: SR Keywords: Mulder/Scully romance Summary: The little girl Scully is taking care of brings up a touchy subject.... Hello, this is my first fanfic ever, so please be nice! Comments, flames (no severe ones please, I'm only 13), can be sent to bondella@s054.aone.net.au ThanXX, ~(T)ruth Disclaimer: The characters of Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, and this whole UST filled sitch belong to Chris Carter (hail king, hail), and 1013 productions (I made this!) Suing me would be utterly pointless, as all you would get is a few X-Files posters, some CDs and a school book or two. This story is just for fun (and wish fulfillment!) ******************************************************************************** Little Helper "And this is Ruth" said Tegan. Dana Scully was silently praying that the girl in front of her would behave like an angel while she stayed with her. Dana's cousin, Tegan had to leave to Ireland for a week on short notice, and was leaving her eight year old daughter with her. Ruth was small for her age, and had light red hair down to her waist. Her cute little face was sprinkled with freckles, and she had long lashes framing her dark eyes. She wore faded overalls that were too big for her and a blue and red t-shirt. She looked angelic enough, but once her mother was gone, there was probably no telling what she would get up to. Dana smiled at Ruth despite her inner feelings of doubt, and motioned for the girl to follow her. "This will be your bedroom", she said, leading her to the one and only bedroom in the house. All of her belongings had been hastily swept aside to make room for Ruth. Scully figured that she would have to sacrifice her room and sleep on the sofa. After all, it was good enough for Mulder....Mulder... Scully's mind wandered for a moment. She was sure she had forgotten about something. Then it hit her. Mulder was supposed to come over to her house tonight so that they could finish their report on the latest case. She glanced at her watch. 6:52pm. He was supposed to be there at seven. He must be on his way over by now, Scully reasoned. Drat. Now she couldn't cancel on him. There was a knock at the door, and Scully went to answer it. Even though she knew it could only be one person, she couldn't resist asking, "Who is it?". "Barney the purple dinosaur", came the reply. Scully grinned and undid the door latch. "Hi Mulder" she said. "I have some bad news for you". "Oh, don't tell me. You've got a really raging party going on in there and you can't fit me in?" he teased. "Whatever. I've actually got my cousin's little girl over. She's staying with me for a while. Sorry, I should have told you, but I forgot." said Scully apologetically. "That's OK, I like kids", said Mulder. "You do?" said Scully, slightly surprised. "Yes, now are you going to let me in, or should I just let this pizza get cold?" asked Mulder "You brought pizza?" exclaimed Scully. "Then you can definitely come in." "Why thank you, Queen Scully", he said, bowing to her as he passed. Mulder set the pizza down on the counter and turned to face Scully. "So, where's this kid?" he asked. "I'll go get her", replied Scully, and she went into the bedroom. She emerged holding Ruth's hand, the girl peeking out from behind Scully's leg. "Hey Ruth, this is Mulder", she said, pointing to him. Ruth waved to him and then jumped up onto the sofa beside him. Scully went to get plates for the pizza. "Coffee, Mulder?" she called from the kitchen. "Yeah, thanks Scully" came the reply. Ruth and Mulder were discussing the complex world of sticker collecting, a topic on which Ruth had an impressive amount of knowledge . Scully had just come back into the room when Ruth asked the question. "So", she asked, "how long have you two been going out together?" When she heard this, Scully began choking on her coffee, and, coughing loudly, covered her mouth with her hands in a desperate attempt to prevent spluttering the hot liquid all over the room. Mulder patted her on the back and smiled. "I think what Scully is trying to say is that we are not...er....together in that sense", he said, slightly betraying his usual cool exterior. "Oh", said Ruth. After that there was an embarrassed silence in the room. Scully tried to get the conversation started again. "So...um....what's your favourite food?" she asked Ruth, her voice wavering a little. She immediately perked up. "Ice cream!", she said excitedly. "The best flavour is strawberry, and my favourite colour is pink!" "Uh-huh", said Scully. She knew she should be paying more attention to Ruth. For the last few minutes she had been staring at Mulder, and she was sure that he could see her out of the corner of his eye. Now that she thought about it, Scully could imagine them as a couple. She could see herself walking along the beach with him, holding hands....maybe even kissing him. She smiled inwardly at the thought of that. Mulder would probably have to go down onto his knees in order for them to kiss, she was so short. Then perhaps he could remain on his knee and propose to her and- "Hello?! Paging Dr. Scully, paging Dr. Scully. Do you read me?" Mulder's voice jolted her back to reality. "Huh? What?" , she said, bewildered. "What time is it?" asked Mulder, smiling at Scully's confused face. Scully looked at her watch. It was 10:45pm. "Yikes!", she exclaimed. "Ruth, it's way past your bedtime. Go and put your pyjamas on and brush your teeth, and I'll be in to tuck you into bed in a few minutes." Ruth sighed. "I'm not tired" she said sleepily, yawning as she spoke. "Oh, I think you are", Scully replied. "Go on, get into bed, I'll be there soon". Ruth stood up slowly and retreated to the bedroom, leaving Mulder and Scully alone with their thoughts. Both knew that Ruth had brought up a subject not often talked about, and both wanted to do something about it. "Huh", said Mulder. "Imagine that." "Imagine what?" asked Scully. "You and I as a couple." he replied. Scully looked indignant. "Why is that so hard to imagine?" she asked. "Oh, I don't know", replied Mulder, "we're just so different". "They say opposites attract" said Scully, grinning devilishly. "Oh, do they?" said Mulder, edging closer to her. "Yes, they do," she replied. "Well then, I guess we have no choice but to obey them" said Mulder, and moved forward to kiss Scully. Even though she knew that it was coming, Scully was still surprised that the one and only Fox William Mulder was kissing her at this very moment. Funny, she thought to herself, 'I have been wishing for this moment for years, not doing anything about it, and all it took was one little girl to get us together'. "Ew!" cried a little voice. "You kissed a BOY!" Mulder and Scully broke apart quickly, startled at the sudden noise. When she saw Ruth standing in the doorway, Scully began laughing. "Yes, Ruth, I did." "But I thought you said that you weren't in love with each other!", she exclaimed. Scully looked at Mulder for a moment. "Well, we changed our minds." she said, grinning. Ruth giggled and covered her eyes with her hands in preparation for another kiss. Mulder looked at the girl, and then at Scully. "I think this means we're allowed to kiss now" he said. "I'll take your word for it" replied Scully, and kissed Mulder for a very long time.... ********************************************************************************