From: TCrow75704 Date: 28 Sep 2000 03:33:30 GMT Subject: NEW: Significant Others 1/2 Title: Significant Others Author: Taryn Crow (TCrow75704@aol.com) Rating: PG-13 Category: Angst, Post-ep, Sequel Spoilers: You have to have seen Chimera to know some things, and have read the previous fic Know Thy En Ami to really follow it. Summary: There's got to be a week after...NOTE: This is the second installment in a planned series. It may seem unfinished, but it won't be for long, trust me Disclaimer: Oh my god, does it look like I own them? ************************ Scully gave the building in front of her a dirty look before throwing open the wooden door of the stairwell. She stepped inside and then stepped back out, almost gagging from the smell inside. She had been in outhouses that smelled better than this building. Great place for a survellience Mulder, she thought to herself. It was dark outside, and almost darker inside. The only light she could make out was coming from the second floor, but it was dim and yellow. She adjusted the bag on her shoulder and took a deep breath, placing a hand over her mouth before stepping back into the building and running up the stairs to the second floor. When she reached the room at the end of the staircase she allowed herself to breathe again. The smell was still bad, but not as strong as below. Mulder was already in the room, sitting before a mud covered and broken window that had obviously been boarded up at one point. His left eye was pressed against the view of a large zoom lens pointed across the street, not breaking his gaze once when Scully came in, or to eat the chow mein he held in a take-out box on his lap. "Mulder," Scully said, putting her bag down on a card table strewn with pictures and file folders. "Do you think that maybe you can find our next x-file in Hawaii?" "Why, what's in Hawai?" "Us, if you could maybe dig something up in Maui." "Why Agent Scully, are you suggesting we use the bureau as an excuse to play?" "No, just an excuse to find more exotic of environment." "Mmm..." Mulder pulled away from the lens and rubbed his eyes. "Wanna take a look?" "What am I looking at?" Scully walked around the table and leaned over towards the lens. "Call it a more exotic environment." "Why am I looking at three hookers?" "The blonde one to the left is the one we're surveilling." Mulder skimmed an index finger up and down over Scully's right hip "You don't...have to stay, you know. If you don't want to be here..." "I admit, it's not the Hilton," Scully said, pulling away from the lens and standing. "But, I'm not going anywhere." Mulder placed both hands on her hips and pulled her back lightly so she was forced to sit on his lap, and he rested his forehead against the back of her shoulder. "It's been a week, Scully." "I know," she said softly. "Are we even going to talk about it?" Mulder rubbed his forehead against her arm, keeping his voice low. "We will. But now now." Scully moved to get up from Mulder's lap and he pulled her back. "Promise?" "I promise." Mulder let her up this time when she rose and watched her walk around the table and brush her fingers across the file folders gracing the top. "You can sleep if you want. I brought a cot." Mulder jerked his head to the left towards a small, green army cot against the wall. "Well the Hilton, it is not," Scully said and wrinkled her nose at the bed. "But if you want the first shift...be my guest." She sat down carefully on the edge of the cot and then slid back to the middle, testing her weight against the thick, green material. "Wake me in two hours?" "Sure," Mulder said and turned back to the lens. The next thing Scully knew, light was hitting her across the eyes and she immediately sat up, almost tipping the cot over. "Mornin' Scully." "What time is it?" She asked quickly, breathing a little quickly. "Almost six." "Mulder, you were supposed to wake me." "Sorry." "Do you want to sleep?" "Not tired." "You want me to get coffee?" "Mmmhmm..." Scully stood up and stretched, taking a moment to slip on her heels and smooth the wrinkles from her clothes. She walked over to Mulder and put a hand on his shoulder. "Mulder," she started. "We will talk, I promise." ************************* Significant other is such a weird term. What could I even tell someone who asks if I have a "significant other." I don't even know what I have. Scully is...I wish I knew what to call her. We haven't spoken about the incident in CGB's office since it happened. The thing is, I can't figure out why. So I'm hoping that she'll enlighten me on where we stand now, a week after we made love on the office floor of our arch enemy's office. After this case, I really need some insight. And I'm hoping she won't kick my ass for knocking on her door at two in the morning, but I just have to know. ********************** ********************** "Mulder?" Scully opened the latch on her door and blinked at her partner, a sleepy dazed expression on her face. Her blue silk robe was tied loosely at the waist and she twisted the knot with her finger. "What are you doing here, is something wrong?" Mulder shook his head. "I just wanted to ask you something," he said. "At two in the morning?" "It couldn't wait." Scully sighed and opened the door wider so he could come in. "Well?" She asked. "Let's sit, okay?" Mulder took her elbow gently and led her to the couch. She sat down sideways and crossed her arms, yawning. Mulder took off his coat, tossed it over the back of the couch and pushed up the sleeves of his navy sweatshirt before sitting down. He perched himself carefully on the end of the couch, elbows on his knees. "Mulder it's late." "I know. I'm sorry," Mulder started and ran his hands over his face. "I just need to know Scully. I need to know where we are." "That isn't a two in the morning type of question, Mulder." "Would you say...are you...are you my significant other?" "Significant other?" "In the widely understood definition." Mulder turned his face towards her, resting his cheek on the palm of his hand. Scully leaned back onto the couch and closed her eyes. "I don't know." There was a long pause in the conversation. Scully opened her eyes, but kept them half-lidded and stared out the window ahead. Mulder kept his gaze on her, but looked away when she rolled her head towards him. "Would you like to be?" He asked. "I don't know if I can have this conversation with you right now Mulder." Scully sighed and shut her eyes again. "Why not?" "Mulder," Scully said his name so quietly he almost didn't hear her. "I don't even know what you're asking me," she whispered. "If I expect more than you, or if I want something else...I don't know if you're just letting me down easy, here." "What?" Mulder looked up, startled. "Letting you down?" "Because it's okay, I'll understand. If you were just...if it didn't mean anything, it's all right." "Christ Scully!" Mulder pushed himself to her side of the couch and grabbed her face in his hands, curling his fingers around her skull and threading them through her hair. "How could you think it didn't mean anything! I haven't stopped thinking about you, about us, for an entire week." Mulder began kissing her face, brushing his lips over her cheekbones and brow and finally her lips. "I've barely been able to resist the urge to touch you at work, and you ask me if you don't mean anything to me? Do you know me at all, Scully?" "No, Mulder, that's the problem. I don't know you like this." Scully grabbed on to his wrists and pulled her face back from his, his lips still slightly puckered from an interrupted kiss. Mulder dropped his hands from her face and shook his head. "You know me better than anyone else, Scully." "We don't have any idea what we're like in this context." "What are you saying?" "I think I need some time to figure it out myself." "Without me?" Scully didn't respond. "Fine," Mulder said, and stood. "I'll see you at work." He pulled his jacket back on and walked briskly to the door. "But for the record Scully, I don't know about you, but I've considered you as my significant other for years before we made love on that floor. Just remember that." ************** "This is not good," the man said, lowering his headphones and taking a long drag on his cigarette. He tapped the excess ash off his cigarette out the window and pulled out a cell phone from his breast pocket. "We need extra steps," he said after reaching the party on the other end. "Extra steps with positive results...good, get him in the picture immediately...Something coincidental, but irresistible...Dr. Waterston has suffered from a heart condition in the past, bring it back to his present...absence makes the heart grow fonder, get Mulder out of the country on a wild goose chase...I don't care, but make it good." The cigarette smoking man shut off his phone and put it back in his pocket. He flicked his cigarette out the window and started his car.