From: "Andy Gibson" Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 23:22:12 +0100 Subject: Saturday Night fanfic Source: direct Saturday Night At Scully's. By Pirateking. Category: MSR Rating: PG-13 Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully belong to Chris Carter and Ten Thirteen Productions. I'm just borrowing then to try and knock some sense into them. This story is set after season seven and contains a tiny spoiler from "Millenium". Fox Mulder sat in his apartment. The game was playing to itself on the TV. He had long since let it fade into the background. He was thinking. He was doing quite a bit these days – thinking. About what life would have been like if he had never discovered The X- Files. About Scully. He particularly thought about if he had met Scully in an everyday situation. What would have happened if that had met in a bar or at the supermarket; would they be friends like they were today or would this friendship have given way to love that would have been consummated years ago? Fate had chosen this way for their lives to go and at the moment, there was nothing that either of them could do about it. Mulder slowly got up off his sofa and switched his TV off. It was night and his apartment was now only lit from the lights from the world outside. His eyes closed. Three short sharp raps on his office door and his life would, unknowingly, be changed forever. "Sorry, nobody down here but the FBI's most unwanted." A petite redhead walked cautiously into his office and looked around. She saw him for the first time and extended her hand in greeting. "Agent Mulder, I'm Dana Scully. I've been assigned to work with you." "Isn't it nice to be suddenly so highly regarded." His eyes opened as the memory of his and Scully's first meeting invaded his mind. The vacation that she had taken with her mom had separated them for a week but he was safe in the knowledge that no psycho killers or beings from other worlds were going to get her. He had to admit to himself that he missed her. He missed seeing her in the office during the day. He missed the witty, flirtatious banter that passed between them. When he kissed her on New Years Night, neither of them spoke about it, preferring to put it down to the fact that it was midnight and well, isn't that what's supposed to happen between friends at that time? Something had past over in Mulder a long time ago and he didn't see them as friends anymore. Something much more than friends – it seems that their relationship existed on a plain high above everything else, but it hadn't quite reached the top. To have a relationship this intimate without actually being intimate was quite a feat considering that Fox Mulder was no good at relationships. He wasn't quite sure when it was that he had fallen in love with Dana Scully. He supposed it was a natural progression after that first meeting all those years ago, in what was it, 1993? The love that he felt for her was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. A force so strong that he felt he had to see or touch her soon before his world imploded and he was left alone with only the darkness to comfort him. He would give anything for this woman but there was the problem that had been nagging at the back of his mind. What if the love was totally unrequited and she laughed in his face when he told her? He didn't think he could handle that sort of rejection and he would rather put a bullet through his brain than live without the woman he loved so completely. He looked over at the digital clock that sat on his desk. 9.55pm. It was Thursday. Scully was back in two days. He sat thinking about if he should tell her how he felt and if he did, how would he tell her? What would he say? He considered writing her letter. No, he told himself, there is only on way to do this. He sat in his apartment and willed the sleep to claim him. He would tell Scully on Saturday night. Friday was achingly depressing. Mountains of paperwork needed to be seen to and he had to have something to keep himself occupied until Saturday, so he spent the entirety of that day and the majority of Saturday ploughing through report after tedious report. He was half way through report number god-knows-what when the phone rang. "Mulder, it's a Saturday evening. What are you doing at the office?" He tried to stay calm but he all of a sudden felt like a fifteen year old boy who was about to ask the most popular girl in school out on a date. "Oh hey Scully, just catching up on our paperwork. Good vacation?" The conversation turned to idle chitchat about the vacation and work until Mulder decided it was time to act. "How long have you been home, Scully?" "About half hour. Why?" "I'm gonna come over and you can tell me more about that vacation of yours. Shall I bring food?" "Okay, but I'm not unpacked yet. Give me an hour?" * * * * * * * * * * * * An hour later Mulder got out of his car, bottle of wine in hand. He had been sat outside Scully's apartment building for the last fifteen minutes or so, rehearsing what he was going to say. He came to the conclusion that no amount of rehearsal was going to change what he was going to say. He had used his cell phone to order Chinese so that was going to give him sometime to ready himself and at least try and seem comfortable in her presence despite what was going on in his mind. He arrived at her door and rang the bell. Scully answered and he thought he was going to faint. Her hair was unkempt and she wore no make up. She wore well-worn jeans and a small t-shirt that clung to her, not in a sensual way but in a relaxed and comfortable way that made Fox Mulder's heart skip a beat. In her casual appearance, Mulder was more in love with her now than ever. Yeah, she looked good in the formal business suits he normally saw her in; hell she made surgical scrubs look good. But here she was Dana Scully, no formalities and no medical training interfering, just plain Dana Scully. And Mulder couldn't have been happier. "Where's the food?" "Oh, it's on its way. I ordered by phone. You don't mind do you?" "No." The conversation that followed was about Scully's vacation and what happened at work while she was gone, but mostly Mulder just let Scully talk and was content just to listen. The food arrived and was eaten. They laughed and joked around and enjoyed each other's company without the constraints of the FBI around them. The TV was on in the background and soon the conversation waned and both sat on the sofa and watched, content just to be there together. Sometime later Mulder decided it was time to get his thoughts out into the open. He turned to Scully. It was now he had to speak or he forever held his peace. "Scully, look at me. What do you see?" "I see you Mulder." "No deeper than that, beyond just Mulder, what do you see?" "I see my friend. My true friend who I trust with my life. I can confide in you Mulder, tell you things that I can't tell anyone else. I feel safe when I'm with you. You are my best friend. Where is this leading?" "You'll see. Now I'll tell you what I see when I look at you. I see my soul mate, the one person who I can't live life without. The woman who makes me complete. I can't even begin to imagine what life would be like if you hadn't been assigned to work with me. You saved me from falling apart Scully and I found myself falling for you. Scully, I love you, I don't know when it happened but it did and I'm not sorry. There I said it." Dana Scully sat on her sofa in stunned silence. She had no idea what to do now, no idea what to say. Her partner, her best friend had just confessed his undying love for her. What was she going to do? She had feeling for him too but had been too goddamn chicken to do anything about it. She hadn't even admitted it to herself. She wasn't ready for this and now the subject was being forced on her. Mulder got up to leave. He put his jacket on and went back over to Scully. He took her face in his hands and kissed her roughly. She responded in kind but Mulder pulled away and walked out the door without saying another word. Scully stayed sat on her sofa for a long time, still able to feel Mulder's lips on her own. Mulder went back to his own apartment, and that is where he stayed. He stayed there so she could find him with the answer he knew was coming. He knew what she would say. He smiled to himself. A while later there was a knock on his door. He opened it. Dana Scully stood on the other side.