From: ephemeral@ephemeralfic.org Date: 2 Jul 2002 04:44:16 -0000 Subject: Riding in Cars with Mulder by Nichole Source: direct Reply To: scoob4u@yahoo.com Title: Riding In Cars With Mulder Author: Nichole Rating: PG-13 Category: MSR, Scully's POV, Angst. Spoilers: War of the Coprophages Summary: What happens when a comment from Mulder gets taken as a declaration of war? Feedback: PLEASE! scoob4u@yahoo.com Homepage: http://www.geocities.com/scoob4u/Nicholes_FanFic.html Disclaimer: Not mine. Mulder and Scully unfortunately belong to those other guys at 1013 and Fox. Author's Notes: This is my first attempt at a challenge fic. Be gentle; it was written in under two hours. *X*~&~*X* "Smart is sexy," I say, watching Bambi walk away with her new love interest. Mulder looks at me. "Well, think of it this way, Mulder. By the time there's another invasion of artificially-intelligent, dung-eating robotic probes from outer space, maybe their uber-children will have devised a way to save our planet." He is staring at me. "You know, I never thought I'd say this to you, Scully, but you smell bad." Well, that was the last thing I thought would come out of his mouth. Mulder smirks at me, the little shit. He is walking away with our umbrella, and the only thing I can think is how satisfied I am with myself. Yes, I am a little happy that Bambi dropped Mulder like a bomb. At least now he knows what it feels like. I walk alone in the light rain and open the door to Mulder's rented car. "Buckle up, Scully," he says, not even looking at me. I no sooner reach for the belt buckle when he stomps on the gas. "Oomph!" I say, giving him a glare. He doesn't even pay attention to me. You want war, Mulder? Well, you've got it. He drops me off at my hotel room, and I pack my things. Apparently, he never unpacked in the first place because he just sits in the car and waits for me. I throw my bags into the trunk of my rental car and flip my hair behind my ear. I look into the car next to me and see Mulder watching patiently, his right hand fiddling with a knob on the radio. I nod at him and open the car door. I don't even give him the chance to lead the way home. I slam the gear shift into reverse and stomp on the gas peddle--much like the way he had earlier. On the highway, he follows close, but doesn't dare pass me. If he does, I've decided, I'll give him the finger. He started it, after all. I pull into the rental place, and before he has the chance to get out of his sedan, I am practically running to the door of the office. I want to be first so he has to drive me home. I get into the car, and I can feel the heat radiating off of him. He's definitely pissed. "You don't mind driving me home, do you?" I ask. This should be interesting. He turns in his seat to look at me and opens his mouth to speak. He quickly snaps it shut again. Oh, come on, Mulder. Give me your best shot. I cock an eyebrow at him as I wait for his reply. "No, of course not, Scully," he says through his teeth. "Good," I say, moving my eyes to the windshield. In my peripheral vision, I can see him still staring at me. He must be getting bored because he finally sits straight again, and puts the car in gear. The long drive home is a quiet one, which is probably a good thing. I don't know why we hate each other right now, but I'm just as ready to fight as he is. Bring. It. On. The car comes to a stop on the dark, wet street in front of my apartment. "Here we are..." he says, shoving the gear shifter into park. He turns in his seat to smile at me, and I fight the urge to to smack that fake expression off of his face. "Need any help carrying your bags?" "I'm fine," I say, reaching for the door handle. "Scully, wait," he says, stopping me with a hand on my arm. "What?" I ask, turning my head to look at him. I am met by his face inches from mine. His nose is almost touching mine. I can feel his breath hitting my suddenly very sensitive skin. This is actually exciting me. "Mul-" I say, but I'm cut off by his lips covering mine. His hand is in my hair, and it's pulling my face closer to his, essentially crushing my nose and lips against his. I'm just beginning to enjoy this when he pulls away. Son-of-a-bitch! We're both breathing heavily, and I see out of the corner of my eye that our condensation is making the windows steam up. Now what? I don't know what to say to him... "Scully..." Good, he spoke first. "What was that for?" I ask, leaning back against the seat. He's puzzled or else he would have answered immediately. Oh God, he's regretting it, isn't he? "I don't know," he says, and leans back against his seat. I'm torn. Ask him to come up or not? Ask my partner and friend to sleep with me, or make him believe that I don't want him when I do. Decisions, decisions. "Goodnight, Scully." My mind screams. WHAT? You're an asshole, Mulder! I can't believe you said that to me! "What?" I ask, trying to keep my voice as calm as possible when in fact, I'm anything but. "Scully, this can't happen," he says, gesturing with his hand from me to him. I'm flabbergasted. "Why not?" I can't help but ask. "Because, Scully!" he says, adding a sardonic laugh. "Because why?" We're going to play this game whether he wants to or not. "I'll see you in the morning," he says, turning around to put on his seat belt. I can't believe him. I just can't believe him. Frustrated, I open the car door and slam it behind me. I walk away from the car towards my apartment building and hear him yelling, "You forgot your bags!" without even opening his window. Screw the damn bags! I'm in my apartment before I know it, and I hurl my coat and shoes across the living room. "Damn you, Mulder!" I shout, feeling a betrayal of tears sting in my eyes. I hear a knock, and I ignore it. If I ignore him, will he go away? Probably not. Mulder is too damn persistent. I yank my front door open and see the shocked expression on his face as I rip my bags from his hands. "Scully, we need to talk," he says and I slam the door in his face. "Go away, Mulder!" I yell, stomping to my bedroom with my bags. I didn't lock the damn door. Shit! "Scully, please!" he begs as he follows me into my room. I whip around, and stand with my hands planted firmly on my hips. "About what?" I hiss. Anger seethes from my body. "About what just happened," he says as a tear slips from my eye. Damn estrogen. Damn me for being a woman with an incredibly attractive, complicated, beautiful, handsome, loving, loyal, and caring partner! "You didn't seem to want to talk about it a minute ago. Why are you so interested in talking about it now?" I ask, wiping my cheek roughly with the palm of my hand. "I was scared," he confesses. I want to smack him. "And you didn't think that I was?" I ask. He looks down at his feet. What's so damn interesting about your feet, Mulder? "Will you at least look at me?" I ask, tears streaming down my face. Slowly, he looks up at me, and I see the tears in his eyes. So, he does have feelings. He's being human for once. How dare he make me feel sorry for him! I don't want to feel sorry for him! All I've ever done in empathize and sympathize with him. For once, I'd just like him to show the same amount of caring for me! "I don't want to fight with you, Scully." My rough defense stance diminishes as my hands slip off of my hips and another tear flows down my cheek. That was exactly what I wanted to hear, whether I knew it or not. I reach out to him with my hand, and he steps closer to me until we embrace. "I'm sorry, Mulder," I say as I bury my face into his chest. "No, I am, Scully. I should never have done that," he says, and I immediately tense. "I didn't mean to kiss you when I did. Not like that, anyway." I pull back and look at him. "Why did you do it then?" "Because I didn't want you to leave me while you hated me," he answers, looking down at me with reddened eyes. "I didn't hate you, Mulder," I say, smiling up at him. "No? Then why did you act like that?" Men! "Because I was angry with you," I say. "Anger and hate aren't necessarily the same thing." "No, they're not," he says, and I see a small smile form at the corners of his mouth. "How about we forget that it ever happened, and start fresh?" "What do you mean?" I ask. He leans down and kisses me. A small, delicate kiss that ends long before I want it to. I stand on tip-toes, and reach for the back of his head with both hands, pulling his face down to mine. I kiss him this time. I take his full bottom lip between mine and feel him smile at me before he begins to kiss back. I feel his tongue slide over my top lip, and I moan. I pull back. I don't know why I do it, but I do. His eyes are still closed, and I see him grin. He slowly opens his eyes, and I smile at him. Well, he's already here in my bedroom, now what? Go on, I think to myself, ask him. Ask him to stay and make love to me. Ask him to stay forever and never leave. Ask him to-- "Scully, I should go." I nod. "Yeah." It's not time for this. This isn't supposed to happen now, and we both know it. He just looks at me. He's probably thinking the same thing I am. He steps forward and wraps his arms around me, holding me closer to him than any hug we've ever shared before. I place my ear to his chest, and I can feel his heart beating in time with my own. I can hear the air enter and leave his lungs slowly--tranquilly. "Promise me that we'll have this someday, Scully," he says with a childlike hope in his voice that brings tears to my eyes. I close my eyes to just feel and hear him. "Promise me that we don't have to go through that again in order to have this," I say, and listen and feel him chuckle above my head. He leans his head down to place a soft kiss on the top of my head. "I promise," he whispers, smoothing down the back of my hair. "Goodnight, Mulder," I say, squeezing him with my arms around his middle. That was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to say in my life, but I'm damn proud to have said it. "Goodnight, Scully." I walk him to my door and smile when he turns to look at me. I think that we've completed the second step in our relationship, and I can't wait to reach the third. I just hope it doesn't take another Bambi to do it. X*~X*~Finito~X*~*X Short, huh? Any takers for another part?