#well and truly fucked
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung…Mama Walter…Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Skimmer-style)…Official…Memory Lane…Tartan Tablecloths…Auntie V… Birthday Surprises …Routines
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
Mulder recovered, going on to close the cases Scully had solved, giving her all the credit, only taking the actual arrest and report typing kudos.
“You don’t get kudos for typing a report, Mulder, and seriously, you dictated it to me while feeding Will dinner.”
“I came up with the words.”
“Yeah, then I fixed the words so they weren’t one giant, run-on sentence without punctuation or verbs.”
Laughing, he leaned over so Scully could give her son snuggles before bed, “touché.” Once he returned from bedtime rituals, Mulder stood in the doorway, “do we have a final count for dinner tomorrow?”
Sunday dinner had been moved to the apartment, simply because Scully hadn’t seen everyone together in decades, or, by Gregorian calendar standards, four weeks, and she was craving people, conversations, noise, chaos, insanity, and the smells of a good, homecooked Sunday dinner, “I think everyone but Charlie and the guys.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot. There’s some funky poaching happening this weekend.”
“Are you sure they’re not going to get arrested or killed or something?”
“They are poaching from the comfort of the SHIT cave living room couches. The only thing that may happen is the pizza will get cold and they’ll have to get up to reheat it.”
&&&&&&&&&&
Eventually, the apartment was full to overflowing, people eating here, there, everywhere, kids all over Scully’s bed, Will wandering back and forth, army-crawl fast with bouts of unsteady walking carrying him where he needed to be. There was so much conversation and chaos that it took Scully a minute to notice Sam standing quietly at the window, “Sam? Everything all right?”
Taking a moment to answer, “there was a man outside staring at the house but he’s gone now. I was just making sure he wasn’t coming back.”
Her attention zeroed in instantly, agent mode never far from all-consuming, “what man? Did you recognize him? How old was he? Do you know what he was wearing?”
Sam, honestly, was used to her question-firing and still looking out the window, answered quietly, “there was a man standing across the parking lot, behind a black car. I didn’t recognize him but he was old, older than Uncle Skimmer but about the same height. He had on a dark blue or black suit and his hair was grey.”
Her stomach icing over instantly, “was he smoking a cigarette?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see him with one.” Finally turning away from the window, he walked over to the bed, “he didn’t look friendly. He looked mean.”
Reaching a handout, she smiled at him, “can you do me a favor and go grab your uncle for me? Have him steal me one of those cream puffs your mom made.”
Sam nodded, then disappeared, Mulder appearing a few minutes later, cream puff in hand, “you okay?”
&&&&&&&
Everyone left early, Mulder quietly asking them to keep an eye on the kids and each other. Locking the door behind, he headed to the bedroom window to watch them all go, only turning to Scully once the cars had driven off. “Your family didn’t even blink when I told them to be careful. They nodded and stepped closer to their kids and will check their rearview mirrors as they’re driving home.” Pulling the heavy blinds shut against the darkened sky, “not one of them blinked. What the hell did we do to them?”
Holding her hand out to him, she wiggled her fingers until he took them, kneeling beside her, kissing each of her knuckles in turn, “Mulder …”
“Don’t say it … not yet.”
“What if it’s him?”
Finishing with her knuckles, he pressed his forehead to them, talking down her forearm to the bed, “if it is … I’m just … we’re …”
He didn’t finish the sentence but Scully did, not trying to be amusing but he had to smile when he heard her say, “well and truly fucked.”
Nodding against her skin, “well and truly fucked.”
“Why would he be watching the house?”
“If I knew that … God, he was supposed to be dead, wasn’t he?”
“Then maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe it was just a man looking at the buildings trying to find which one he was supposed to go to. I mean, we’ve stood there looking at a row of houses before, not knowing which one to go to at first.”
“Usually, we’re looking for someone who eats people or hacks them into little pieces.”
Stomach in a tight knot, she attempted to bring levity to their lead-weight discussion, “our lives are not a good example for comparison.”
He didn’t do anything but massage her wrist, still looking at the happy, polar bear printed flannel sheets he’d bought them for Christmas, “Spender isn’t exactly a good example of the common, everyday lost man, either.”
Suddenly she wanted him with her, beside her, surrounding her so thoroughly that the real world would disappear in the hot-blooded cocoon of one Fox Mulder, “is Will down for the night?”
“I think so. He never got a nap today so he should be good until the morning. Why?”
Moving her hand, she ran her fingers through his hair, “come to bed and make the world go away for awhile.”
Simply nodding, he stood, stripped, turned out the light and crawled in beside her. Tugging at her shirt sleeve, they did some maneuvering and soon, the two were spooned together, skin on skin, heat on heat, Mulder whispering once in her ear, “can you imagine playing ‘jetpack’ now?”
The levity was long gone, replaced by a dull, thudding fear in her marrow, “why do I feel like everything is rushing ahead? Out of control? Even if that wasn’t Spender, something’s going to happen, Mulder … soon … I can feel it.”
Pressing impossibly closer, he moved to kiss her behind the ear, his breath tickling tiny hairs usually reserved for making her spine shiver and her knees weak, “so can I. When Sam came to get me, he had a look in his eye that I didn’t recognize. He was scared but angry. Not confused. Angry.”
“Do you think it’s possible that he knows about the chip? About when you were gone last time?”
“I don’t know. I mean, we’ve only ever talked about it alone but who knows what Skinner may say or Maggie or even us. I mean, we talk when they aren’t in the room but they are in the house. Maybe he’s overheard something.” Feeling her fingers tracing along his forearm, which was nestled between her breasts, he stroked her throat absently, toying with the nubbin end of her collarbone, “how do I ask him without asking him? I’d like to know so we can make sure he’s on the same page.”
“The same page?” She nearly turned over to look at him like he was insane but he knew it was coming and tightened his grip on her, keeping her where she was. She felt the constricting arm and stopped trying to move, but did manage to turn her head slightly, talking to the ceiling, “he’s 12, Mulder. He isn’t even in the same volume that we are, much less chapter or page.”
He sighed into her cheek, his nose smushed against her temple, “we need to bring Dave in, then, or everybody, really.”
Scully put her head back down, attempting to wiggle a little closer to him, even though the laws of physics precluded that, barring sex or at least the precursors of sex. Once she realized this was as close as she was getting right now, she matched his sigh from moments earlier, “I can get Dave and Joanna over here tomorrow, ask if they can drop the kids at Mom’s house for awhile; just make sure Skinner’s there first.”
Had there been any possible chance in the world he could have run away at the moment, ensured his disappearance would protect the rest of the family, he would already be gone, leading the enemy from the gates, wild goose chase ensuing for decades to come.
But he didn’t do that anymore. He couldn’t do that anymore. He wouldn’t do that … ever.
He’d have to stay and fight.
“I wish I had never opened that file cabinet. I wish I had never listened to Diana when she told me I should dig further in. I wish you had, and this breaks my heart to even say out loud, I wish that you had just turned around when you saw me sitting there with those stupid slides, when you heard me say, ‘hey, let’s go to Oregon.’”
Now she did turn around, flopped and struggled but made it 180 degrees to face him, her face angry, her eyes flashing, “don’t you ever say that to me again. Whine, moan, complain, but do not ever tell me that you wish I hadn’t come down into that basement. You’d be dead without me, so get off your fucking martyr pedestal and kiss me, you jackass.” Doing as ordered, slightly afraid not to, she rubbed her nose against his once they’d come up for air, “tomorrow we will deal with this. Tonight, we sleep the sleep of two people who have nothing to worry about but the actual sleep, all right?”
“Are you actually going to sleep?”
“Probably not but I’m going to fucking fake it ‘til I make it.” She had fire in her veins at the moment and while she had absolutely no idea how to cool it down so she could get some sleep, she closed her eyes anyways, just to prove her point.
She felt his forehead settle against hers and his voice drift past her ears, “I never said I wished you hadn’t come down to the basement. I would never wish you hadn’t met me but the way I see it, even if you had turned around, since I’d already half fallen in love with you anyways, I’d have found a way to talk to you again because, I mean, I red M&M you to infinity and beyond. Can’t fight destiny, Scully.”
Her hand resting on the back of his neck by now, her fingernails scratched lightly, “we’ll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.”
The tingle at the base of skull, which had nothing to do with the chip implanted there and all to do with her steady stroke, made him catch her lips again, “tomorrow.”
