From: Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1998 01:33:28 EDT Subject: NEW: Shaving Cream And Promises (1/1) Title: Shaving Cream And Promises (1/1) Author: Dana Audrey E-Mail Address: AudreyCats@aol.com Rating: G- but it ain't Disney, folks Category: S, R Spoilers: None Keywords: Mulder/Scully Romance Summary: Scully comes into mishaps while shaving, Mulder is there to pick up the pieces. Disclaimer: Ok, here's the thing. I am of the shippy belief that one day what I write about will eventually come true. Maybe, *maybe* Chris Carter will read one of my stories and think, "Hey, you know what? That just may work!", and then it'll be on the show, and he will have used *my* idea, so therefore *I* could sue *him* for stealing *my* characters! (Ok, so I tried...) XxXxXxXxXxXx Shaving Cream and Promises (1/1) by Dana Audrey As she lowered her tired body into the steaming rose-scented water, Scully breathed a sigh of relief. She had made it through another day. Amazing, really. Being chased after by Mulder, chasing after him. Rejecting his theories and coming up with her own. Taking notes, both physically and mentally, and recalling them for analysis. Flying here. Flying there. Asking, begging, guessing, realizing. Trying, being, doing, finding. It had been one hell of a rollercoaster. Not that any of it was out of the ordinary. They, and she emphasized the plural, had been going through this charade for nearly six years now. There had, of course, been the expected major ups and major downs- no, she took that back. Mostly downs. But they had gotten through them and were amazingly still here and intact. Scully's scientific training had taught her to question everything. How she and Mulder had made it through what they had was turning out to be the exception to the rule. She was learning that merely making it was more than enough to be thankful for- wondering why and how was tempting fate. They were here, they were alive, they were happy. End of story. She noticed the mirror of the cheap motel bathroom steaming up. It felt so good to sit back for half an hour and for once, just not think. She spent her days racking her brain for everything she had ever learned just to keep up with Mr. Know-It-All in the adjoining room, she deserved a rest. She soaked in the scent. Dreamily she reached for her shaving cream, and lathered it luxuriously over her legs. She remembered as a little girl always admiring her father's morning routine, and smiled. Now where was that darned razor? She caught a glimpse of it on the bathroom sink. With great agility and care not to smear the cream already applied, Scully propped herself up and hopped across the bathroom on one foot. Damn it all, she thought. This was supposed to be rest. She angrily snatched up the cause of her annoyance and hopped back to the tub, only to slip where the bath mat should have been and fall to the tile floor, arms flailing helplessly in the air. * * * Mulder had seen plenty of comical, calculated, and just plain horrific sights in his career at the FBI, but the one before him topped them all. He had been walking into Scully's room to ask her a few details about the current case, and he had suddenly been greeted by the naked, unconscious, creamy body of his partner. He didn't know what to do first. Shaving cream was everywhere, as was bubble bath. A small, bleeding bump on Scully's temple caught his eye, and he quickly surveyed the wound. She had obviously hit her head on the tub and been knocked out, but it didn't look too serious. He gathered her into a towel and moved her to her bed. After an hour and four cold compresses, Scully's eyes fluttered open. Mulder barely had the time to open his mouth before the look of panic that was spreading over her face stopped him. "Mulder? Where...? What...? Why am I naked? Why does my head hurt? What the hell happened?" Her eyes were spinning to scan the room. "You fell. Hit your head." "I want to see it." She began to get up, but soon fell back to the bed. "Whoa, just take it easy. You had a pretty hard fall." Reluctantly, she complied. "You know, Scully, you gave me a pretty good scare." "Not as good as you're giving me right now, Mulder. You're blushing." "Ah, well... It's not every day I see you like... that. I was scared." "Of me?" He laughed. "Yeah, Scully, even unconscious you're capable of stopping me dead in my tracks." The full truth of the comment hit Mulder the second he was finished saying it. "What were you doing, anyway?" He tried to cover up his blatant admission but the attempt was futile. Luckily, Scully seemed not to notice as she was too busy trying to recall the event prior to her fall. "I... I was taking a bath... My razor was on the sink... oh, God. How embarassing! I must have looked awful!" "Awful? I don't think so." "Then why were you scared?" "I wasn't so much scared as..." "As..." she prodded gently. "Cautiously concerned," he produced proudly. His pride was brief, though, because instead of scorn, Scully's eyes were filled with something that slightly resembled pain. "Six years together, you find my what might as well have been dead body and are 'cautiously concerned'? Good to know how much I really mean to you." She hastily got up off the bed, belatedly remembering the towel, and started for the bathroom. "Scully..." He followed her and stood watching her reflection inspect the wound. "You can go back to your room now. I'm fine. Your cautious concern should be at ease." "That hurt." "Good." "I'm not leaving." "Then I am." "Scully..." "What now?" "Do you think I would have stayed at your side for an hour if all I felt was cautious concern?" Her reflection turned away and the real Scully was staring at him with an upturned eyebrow. "You know you mean much more to me than that." Silence. "Don't you?" Instead of responding she pushed past him back into the main room. "What do you think, Mulder?" "I think maybe I was wrong in thinking you intelligent. Because anyone with the intelligence I credited you with would have picked up on it by now." "Anyone with that intelligence would have had the common sense to *leave* by now." The words hit him like a badly-needed slap in the face. He didn't know whether to be angry she wanted to leave or blissfully happy she hadn't. "You expect me to follow you everywhere, and help you when you need it. But what about me? What about all those times you've left me or sent me away or just plain forgotten I was there? And you always expect me to come running behind you like some poor lost dog, faithful and loyal to the very end. You don't know, Mulder. It's not easy being your partner. But for some odd reason, I put up with it. Maybe it's because I thought you trusted me, because I thought you *cared*." "I *do* care." Scully barely had time to understand his words before the dizziness struck. Suddenly she was turning, fighting to remain standing. The longer she tried the worse it got. Finally, she gave up and sank to the floor in a heap. ********* Her eyes fluttered open for the second time that night and Mulder breathed a sigh of relief. "Don't you ever, *ever*, do that to me again, Scully." She struggled to regain her composure and absorb what had happened. "Why, were you cautiously concerned again?" "Stop it." She was going to argue, but something about his tone made Scully stop in mid-breath. "I do care. I mean it. If I don't say it it's because I think you'd hit me." Slowly, Scully began to see it from his point of view. "I probably would." "Like if I had told you what I really felt when you didn't regain consciousness for over an hour last time, and twenty minutes now. If I had begun to describe the panic that took me over you would have shrugged it off and forgotten." "No, I wouldn't have," she said softly, though sadly recognizing his words as the truth. "Yes, I would." Mulder watched her frown and look about the room as if searching for something that had never been there to begin with. "I... I was overreacting. Maybe it was the fall, or everything that happened today- I don't know. I'm sorry. I think I just need some sleep." "You're right. It's pretty late. I'm going to go to my room and let you enjoy a long night's rest, okay?" She nodded. "Although I might have to check in on you a couple times to make sure you didn't faint on me again," he said over his shoulder as he got up and began to leave. "Mulder?" He turned to face her. "Stay." His face turned from puzzled to disbelief to something Scully had never even seen before. "With me." Minutes passed, and he just stood there. Scully looked away, and he just stood there. She looked back, he was still standing there with the same undecipherable emotion written all over his face. And he still just stood there as she began to get up and walk over to him, speaking softly, "I never doubted you. Never. I never did..." The words trailed off but the meaning didn't. Mulder finally shook himself out of his daze and folded Scully into his arms. He tipped her head up and while he kissed her tried to make her see he knew, he had always known. When he pulled back he knew she understood. Of course she understood. His Scully had always understood everything. Every clue he pointed out, every gesture he had offered, every word with underlying meaning he had ever uttered. She had understood it all. "I'll let you get some sleep." He started to back away and turn around, but Scully didn't let go. "Don't you *dare*, Mulder." His back turned to her, a slow smile began to creep across his face. Her grip on him was tightening. "Or you just may find me lying naked on the floor again." "Promise?" XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx The End. If you liked it, please reply to AudreyCats@aol.com If you hated it, please reply to AudreyCats@aol.com If you... Do you get the point? XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx