From: ephemeral@ephemeralfic.org
Date: 9 Feb 2002 11:29:58 -0000
Subject: Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Teenager by Starbuck_Jayne
Source: direct

Reply To: Starbuck_Jayne@mulderandscully.co.uk


Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Teenager

By Starbuck_Jayne
Starbuck_Jayne@mulderandscully.co.uk

Rating: PG I would have said-don't think 
there's anything too bad in there.

Spoilers: Fire, Je Souhaite, and Requiem I 
suppose.   

Keywords: MSR.  

Disclaimer:  Not mine wish they were but the 
characters of Mulder, Scully, Skinner 
Doggett etc all belong to Mr Carter, 1013 
Productions and Fox.

Archive:  Anywhere just please keep my name 
and e-mail attached, but no flames please 
'cause I am way too delicate!

Summary:  It takes a chance encounter with 
an old flame to make Mulder realise his true 
feelings for Scully.

Feedback:  On my knees and begging for it.

Author's Notes: Ok this is set in the gap 
between Je Souhaite and Requiem. 

Feedback:  Yes please.  It keeps me alive :) 

Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Teenager

Caitlyn took a drag of her cigarette and 
swung her legs aimlessly.  A hand rested on 
her abdomen, swollen with maternity.

"You see," she blew smoke in languid curls, 
"there is no white horse.  Prince Charming 
doesn't just ride in and whisk you away like 
in some fairy tale.  Honey, you find your 
own love."

Her companion looked unconvinced.

"Cait, you're nineteen and you got knocked 
up.  You have no choice but to stay with 
this guy.  You think that's love?"

Caitlyn glared at her, more out of annoyance 
that she'd divulged her true age in a bar 
than anything else.

"Fine," she retorted, "but I don't see you 
riding off into the sunset anytime soon."

"Maybe I'm just waiting for the right guy," 
the young woman smiled and traced a finger 
around the edge of her beer bottle.  A 
subtle perfume of cheap scent engulfed the 
area immediately around her, but it didn't 
diminish her natural appeal.  Completely 
unaware of the attention she was attracting 
she ran a hand through long red hair, 
eventually flicking blue eyes upwards to 
punctuate her sentence. 

"Did you not listen to me at all?"  Caitlyn 
waved her cigarette dramatically.  "True 
love is pure Hollywood!"

"Cait, just because you don't believe 
something doesn't mean that it isn't real.  
And do you really think it's wise to be 
smoking like that when you're three and a 
half months pregnant?"  There was a pause as 
she waved cigarette smoke away with her 
hand.  "You wanna hear a story?"

Unsure that she did, Caitlyn pursed her lips 
in a way that displayed both badly applied 
lipstick and nicotine-yellowed teeth.

"Well, you're gonna here it anyway," she 
swallowed the last of her beer before 
leaning forward and beginning in a hushed 
tone.  "Ok, it's about 2000, maybe 2001-I 
forget sometimes.  Anyway, J.Edgar Hoover 
building, Washington D.C.  The whole place 
is practically deserted, except for two 
F.B.I. Agents, probably the most dedicated 
in the business..."

XXXXXXX

The clock said 11.10pm, but Dana Scully felt 
pretty sure that it was already well past 
midnight.  As each second passed with a 
laborious tick, she couldn't help but wonder 
what had become of her partner.  After 
having left in search of food, he should 
have been back over an hour ago.  Scully 
sighed and lifted her coffee cup, studying 
the curdled dregs almost absent mindedly, 
unsure if she could be bothered to make a 
fresh pot.  Deciding eventually that it 
wasn't worth the hassle, she returned to 
typing her latest report.  Harvard had not 
been best pleased about the disappearing 
body trick, and there was a lot of paperwork 
to be taken care of.  The fact that she'd 
spent the night before watching "Caddyshack" 
hadn't exactly helped matters either.  
Still, Mulder had been warned-tomorrow night 
it was "Steel Magnolias" or nothing.  She 
smiled on remembering the look on his face:

"You really know how to hold a grudge, don't 
you, Scully?"  Still, he wasn't going to 
refuse the chance of a night in with Scully, 
not to mention a meal that wasn't salvaged 
half-burned, half-still frozen from the 
microwave.  

Scully stretched and took off her glasses.  
If Mulder wasn't going to show up then she 
saw no reason why she had to keep on 
working.  Besides, she'd only be asleep for 
a few minutes.

She couldn't quite place what had woken her.  
It may have been the soft click of the 
central heating going off, or the distant 
chiming of midnight on the clock outside.  
Although, the most probable cause was the 
clatter of wood against metal, as Mulder 
thrust open the door and consequently struck 
the filing cabinet.

"Mulder!  Where have you been?"

"Scully!  You have pen on your face!"

On instinct Scully pressed a hand to her 
cheek, causing her partner to grin in a way 
that informed her of her gullibility.  

"So..." She eyed him up and down.  
Surprisingly neatly dressed considering it 
was midnight and he'd been missing some two 
and a half hours.  No food though.

"Are you going to tell me where you've been 
or can I go home and try again in the 
morning?"  She checked her watch and made a 
move to switch off her laptop.

"Wait!"  Mulder grinned, seductively 
removing a key from his pocket.

"Oh what is that?"  Scully was not in the 
mood for guessing games, and this was 
starting to look suspiciously like the 
beginning of one of her partner's "brand new 
x-file" speeches.  

"This," he spun the key on his finger for 
effect, "is the key to a haunted house."

"Mulder," Scully rubbed her temples, "I know 
I've said this many times throughout our 
partnership, but right now I mean it more 
than ever before: please tell me you're 
kidding."

"Come on now, Scully, you know that cliches 
are the very basis of the X-Files!"

Now that she knew he was leading her on the 
sense of relief that she didn't have to 
spend another night playing mind-games with 
a couple of supposed ghosts far outweighed 
her curiosity.  Removing her jacket from the 
stand she headed for the door.

"Mulder, you can either come with me and 
tell me on the way out, or you can stay here 
and tell me in the morning."

"Where's your sense of fun, Scully?"  Was 
the basic dialogue that drifted through the 
Hoover building's basement passages as the 
two agents made their way back towards 
ground level.

XXXXXXX    

Caitlyn's attention had wandered to a young 
bartender who was struggling through the 
hoards of people in an attempt to collect 
glasses.

"Cait!"  

"Yeah, Katie, is this story actually going 
anywhere, Hun?"

"Don't call me that.  Yes, but you're going 
to have to listen rather than eying up 
everything that comes towards you wearing 
pants!"

"Ok, fine, I'm listening." 

"Right, well the next day Dana Scully 
arrived at work, totally unsure what to 
expect.  Her partner had lost her interest 
after firing a series of cryptic clues about 
their next case at her.  In the end she'd 
just given up and gone home.  Still, it 
wasn't as if Mulder handing her a plane 
ticket at 6am in the morning then whisking 
her off to the airport wasn't unusual.  She 
felt pretty sure that she'd have been 
subjected to worse..."

XXXXXX

"We're going where?"  Scully held the plane 
ticket in the air, studying it from a 
distance as if that might change the 
destination.

"England."

"Why?" 

"There was an American business man, went 
missing over there in suspicious 
circumstances.  There's been a team of 
agents out there for a few weeks now but 
they weren't finding anything so I managed 
to convince Skinner to let us have a look."

"Mulder, are you sure it's wise to be flying 
to England, apparently totally 
unnecessarily, to investigate a case that's 
already being investigated by the bureau and 
has no paranormal connections at all, as far 
as I can see, just a few weeks before we're 
due to be audited?"

Mulder grinned at her cynicism. 

"Scully, I promise we can rent "Steel 
Magnolias" whilst we're in London," he 
slipped a hand round her shoulders and 
guided her towards the door.

xxxxxxx


Seven hours later they touched down in 
London.  Night had fallen and the last of 
the summer warmth was faint, but ardent in 
its attempt to linger in the air.   However, 
it was fighting a losing battle, and as she 
stepped from the airplane Scully gave a 
slight shiver at the chill.  The city's 
lights shone brightly, reflecting off the 
River Thames and making them generally quite 
dazzling to the beholder.  It was getting 
late and the two agents were already too 
jet-lagged to care about finding their 
hotel, each one secretly hoping that the 
other would take care of it.  Tired and 
hungry, they made their way dazedly towards 
a taxi and climbed inside, mumbling vague 
details of their accommodation before 
slipping into a gentle slumber.

By 1am the adverse effects of over-seas 
travel had taken a different turn, and both 
agents had ended up sitting on Mulder's bed, 
discussing the case.

"So I suggest that, after breakfast, we head 
towards his offices over here...do you have 
the name in your notes?"

Scully flipped over a few pages of her 
comments, surprisingly well written 
considering she had been flying at 30,000 
feet through turbulence for most of the 
journey.  

"Erm...ok it's a "Thames Road Buildings" 
about 2 or 3 miles from here I would guess."

Mulder nodded approvingly before deciding to 
abandon the case and change the subject.

"You wanna watch a movie?"

"One of your movies?  No."  The two 
exchanged a glance and Scully smiled good-
naturedly.  

"Ok...you wanna spend vast amounts of money 
on room service and charge it to Skinner?"

"Mulder..." Since meeting Mulder, Scully had 
learned that playing by the rules never got 
anybody anywhere, but at the back of her 
mind was still the thought of the upcoming 
audit, and she wasn't sure she could 
sacrifice her job for the sake of a bottle 
of champagne and a few overly-priced 
delicacies.

"So..." Mulder threw himself defeatedly down 
on the bed, arms behind his head and leaving 
Scully on the edge by his feet.  "You could 
tell me about your childhood."

"Mulder, you left behind a career in 
psychology, remember?"

"So maybe I should put my suppressed 
knowledge to good use."

It was a familiar practice these days for 
the duo to spend time on idle chatter-
sometimes there was little else to do.  

"Scully, do you mind if I ask you a 
question?"

"Now, how did you answer this same question, 
Mulder?"  Scully grinned and slapped his 
feet playfully."

"How long have you been a red-head?"

"Since University.  Trust me, blondes don't 
necessarily have more fun.  Nor do brunettes 
for that matter."

"I disagree," Mulder said simply before 
moving on to his next statement,  "You know 
Scully, some people associate red hair with 
passion".

"Yeah?  And some people compare a sneeze to 
an orgasm."

Mulder was only momentarily stunned by his 
partner's semi-explicit metaphor.

"You ok, Scully?"

"Mulder, I'm fine..." she said, twisting a 
corner of the quilt between her fingers, 
"honestly."

 
XXXXXX

"So what's going on now then?"  Caitlyn 
demanded impatiently-she wasn't a fan of 
slow moving stories.  "Is he trying to get 
her into bed?  Are they already sleeping 
together?  Is she refusing to sleep with 
him?"

"Why do you always assume everything is 
about sex?"  Katie sighed heavily and 
stirred her drink with a straw.  "Now do you 
want me to go on or not?"

Caitlyn checked her watch before replying 
that she did want to hear the end of the 
story, even if it meant sitting still for 
the next ten minutes.

XXXXXX

The morning mists were rising, leaving 
behind a bustling city that basked in the 
early-summer sun.  Mulder coaxed Scully 
awake, and she eventually stirred from her 
position at the foot of the bed.  Somehow 
during the night she had ended up under the 
covers so that the partners had slept one at 
each end of the bed.

"C'mon, Scully," Mulder was saying, "we paid 
for breakfast so we may as well eat it."

Scully refused, saying she was too tired to 
be hungry and advising him to go on without 
her.

"I'll meet you in the lobby in an hour," she 
said, already looking as if she might fall 
back to sleep.

The plan was to be at the businessman's UK 
offices for 10pm where they would get some more 
basic background information.  Then, whilst 
Scully traced the man's last movements, 
Mulder was to head over to the scene of his 
last sighting and see what he could learn 
from the other agents already involved.

By 2pm he was in a hotel room in a very 
exclusive part of the city.  None of the 
staff looked at all pleased to be welcoming 
yet another FBI agent, and the forced 
politeness was worse than if they had been 
downright rude to him.  Mulder surveyed the 
scene.  A couple of FBI agents were in one 
corner, comparing notes and sipping coffee.  
Then, to the right of him was a group of 
police.  He couldn't see the face of the 
person who was obviously in charge, giving 
out orders as far as he could tell, but 
something about the figure, the voice, 
caused his mind to conjure up a picture of 
Phoebe Green.  He shook the image away with 
a shudder, but then, as the woman turned, 
his fears were verified.

He had no idea of how she had persuaded him, 
but at the end of the day's work he found 
himself sitting in a little cafe around the 
corner, twisting the edge of his napkin as 
Phoebe sat and drank coffee.  

"Fox..."

He cringed at the use of his first name, but 
knew if he said anything she would only bear 
it in mind for the purposes of future 
irritation.

"What a surprise it is to see you in these 
parts," she laughed.  "Maybe it's a sign."  
Mischievous eyes looked out from under her 
hair.  Mulder remained silent.

"Are you just going to sit there and say 
nothing?"  She asked.

"Probably a good idea," he retorted, as he 
watched her strike up a match, under the 
pretence of lighting the little candle on 
the table.  He knew it was meant as the 
tiniest little dig at him-considering his 
extreme dislike of fire.  

"There," she announced as she shook out the 
match, "very romantic."

Mulder groaned inwardly.  So this was her 
little game.

"So tell me, Fox.  How is that partner of 
yours...Agent Sally, was it?"

"You know full well it was Agent Scully, 
Phoebe, and she's fine."

"So she's over here too?"  Phoebe stirred 
her coffee dreamily before blowing on it, 
sending steam cascading towards Mulder.  She 
didn't wait for his response to the 
question, knowing the answer even before she 
asked.  "Well, I'll have to act fast," she 
laughed enticingly.  Mulder decided he'd had 
enough.  Anything he had ever felt for 
Phoebe Green was gone even before he left 
Oxford all those years before.  He wasn't 
about to get involved in her little mind 
games.

As he rose to leave she rose with him, 
suddenly embracing him and forcing her lips 
on to his.  He pushed her away.

"No!"  He wiped a hand across his mouth, 
"no."  He repeated quietly.

"Why Fox, surely you wouldn't turn down a 
simple kiss from an old friend?"  She 
watched him carefully, surveying his 
expression.   

"Phoebe anything we had is long dead.  You 
can't just decide to come back into my life 
and keep trying to pick up where we left off 
decades ago.  People change Phoebe," he was 
barely controlling his temper, infuriated by 
the way she assumed she could just kiss him 
and he would respond and decide that he was 
still in love with her after all.

"Oh come on, Fox.  I find it highly unlikely 
that there is anyone else who would be 
betrayed by this.  You obviously aren't with 
anyone special, or you wouldn't have come 
over here on a wild goose chase.  Alone."  
She stressed the last word maliciously.  

"I'm not alone, Phoebe."  He couldn't help 
it.  The words were spoken before he could 
prevent them.  She looked stunned.

"Don't tell me you're involved with Agent 
Scully," she laughed dryly.  "Why, that sort 
of behaviour could get you thrown out of the 
bureau."  And it would as well, should she 
have anything to do with it.

"That's not what I said, Phoebe."  Mulder 
spoke quietly, but with an edge to his voice 
that warned her to leave it whilst she still 
could.

"On the contrary, Agent Mulder.  I believe 
that's exactly what you said."

"Phoebe!  I am not involved with Agent 
Scully!"  People in the cafe had turned 
around to see what the fuss was about, but 
Mulder didn't care.  Other people's opinions 
of him had never really been an issue in his 
mind.  "I love her."
     
xxxxxxx

By 11pm Scully was forced to surrender to 
the pain in her head, and set off in search 
of relief.

"Mulder?"  She knocked and entered without 
waiting to be asked.  Her partner was lying 
on his bed, presumably deep in thought 
rather than asleep.  "Mulder, do you have 
any painkillers on you?"

"What?  Oh...yeah.  Hang on," he fumbled 
absent-mindedly in a wash bag on his bedside 
table, then handed Scully a packet.  She 
glanced down at it.

"You ok, Mulder?"

"Yeah.  Fine."  He answered a little too 
sharply, so attempted to correct himself.  
"Why?"

"Oh, just that this is a packet of, what 
appear to be Spanish, breath mints."  She 
turned the box over in her hands, "that 
expired in 1988."  She handed it back to 
him, almost automatically placing the back 
of her hand against his forehead.

"What's that for?"

"There's obviously something wrong, Mulder.  
Now you don't have a fever so..."

"Scully, I told you I'm fine," he almost 
snapped at her.

"Well, you know where I am," she turned as 
if to leave, but he caught her hand.

"Scully?" 

"Yes?"

"I ran into Phoebe today."

Scully was momentarily taken aback, but 
quickly regained her composure.

"Green?  Where?"

"In Robert Wells' hotel room.  She was, I 
don't know, the leader of some investigation 
by Scotland Yard.  Loving every minute of 
it-lording it over us mere FBI agents."  He 
laughed bitterly.  Scully had no difficulty 
in believing the last part of his story-her 
encounter with Detective Green some seven 
years ago had shown her to be vindictive to 
say the least.  This was a woman who was not 
afraid to take everything she had against 
her ex-lover and use it to try and destroy 
him.

"Mulder, you know we don't even have to be 
here," Scully sat down beside her partner on 
the bed, causing him to move just slightly 
away from her.

"I'm not letting her win this one, Scully."

"Mulder, by saying that you're stepping 
right into her little game.  Don't you see 
this is what she wants?"

"You don't understand, Scully.  You don't 
know her like I do," he sighed heavily.

"I understand, Mulder, that you don't have 
to be manipulated like this."  She squeezed 
his hand briefly, but he didn't respond to 
her touch.

"She," he turned to face her, "she tried to 
kiss me."

"It doesn't surprise me," Scully laughed 
softly and patted her partner's hand again.

"Ok, well I'm going to try and sleep off 
this headache," she smiled.  "And Mulder, if 
you want then tomorrow I'll come and help 
you kick Phoebe's ass."  She turned around, 
but Mulder's hand on hers pulled her back.  
He was sitting up now, and in one swift 
movement he pulled her to him, studying her 
face for a few seconds before drawing her 
into a passionate kiss.

XXXXXXX

"Soon after that, my dad went missing for 
nearly a whole year," Katie concluded, "He 
missed out on nearly all of my mom's 
pregnancy."

"Wait a minute," Caitlyn gestured wildly 
with her cigarette, "so you're telling me 
that the only reason he married her and 
they're still together is because he got her 
pregnant?  Hun, that is exactly the 
same story as mine, only it's set in England 
like, 20 years ago."  She stubbed out her 
cigarette triumphantly.  "See!  True love 
doesn't exist at all.  The only reason 
people get married is because they get 
knocked up."

Katie shook her head knowingly and laughed, 
Caitlyn was hearing what she wanted to hear 
as per usual.  Still, in her own mind and 
those of several other secret listeners in 
the bar that night, true love was more than 
a one night stand and an unwanted pregnancy. 


X~The End~X