Chapter Text
Scully shifted awkwardly, trying to get out of the bed Mulder was still sleeping in without waking him. She slipped out of his arms and picked up the first piece of clothing she found in the hallway, Mulder's shirt. She put it on and was forced to see that even with a shirt that was too big, she was still just as sexy.
She walked to the kitchen and started cooking pancakes for two people.
She felt two arms around her waist and Mulder kissed her neck, she giggled as he slipped his hand under her shirt.
He whispered in her ear "uhm...that shirt makes you so sexy"
Scully's landline startled them, Dana pulled away from him to grab her phone and pick it up.
"Hello Dana, you can get me Agent Mulder."
"Hello, but-- okay." Scully ran her hand over her face, hoping Skinner wouldn't tell his superiors about the moment. Dana passed the phone to Mulder.
"As you did not show up today, I could not attend. Thank you" he paused and continued "Our superiors, therefore, send us two hours away, and yes the presence of Agent Scully is needed." Mulder who had put it on speakerphone gave a Dana a look she couldn't determine.
Mulder quickly ended the phone call.
He picked up his shirt and his clothes scattered in the hallway, he quickly said goodbye to Scully just long enough to go home to pack his bag and go get Skinner.
Dana felt strangely empty from Mulder's absence, but the idea of leaving with him on business made her happy because the thing she loved above all was to work and even more to work with Mulder. She went back to her room and prepared a light bag made up of work clothes and a softer outfit, a comfortable and simple outfit which would change her from her suit outfits which are far from comfortable for anyone.
She got ready and didn't notice that it was nearly 8 am, she ate her pancakes and put some in a bag for Mulder.
Mulder walked slowly down the quiet street that overlooked Scully's apartment. Scully recognized the noise of the car and closed the window, took her bag and left her apartment, closing the front door.
She got in the car after throwing her bag in the trunk, she sat down and kissed Mulder on the mouth, he smiled and started the car towards Skinner's apartment, the silence in the car was comfortable for them, Dana in had taken the opportunity to intertwine his hand with Mulder's.
He parked in front of Skinner who looked like he had just woken up, he opened the trunk and threw his bag in the same way.
Just before Skinner opened the trunk, he had seen Dana and Mulder's hands entwined, but he didn't comment and waited to see what happened next.
It was going to be a long drive, because it's about a 4 hour drive from Maryland to La Pensilvania where he was supposed to go to investigate an X-rated file.
The radio played the random songs to fill the silence in the car, leaving only Mulder to wake up to watch the road so as not to have an accident.
They stopped on a highway for coffees and to be able to get back on the road after stretching their legs, and it was Dana who took the wheel to their final destination. She opened the box of Abba's album and listened to the music, singing her favorite tunes.
Mulder didn't sleep on the entire trip, talking with Dana, talking about their relationship when they were sure Skinner was sleeping soundly even though he knew the man was aware of their secretive practices.
They arrived in front of a simple motel, the one their superiors gave them for this business which should keep them busy for several days. Skinner woke up and they took their bags and got out of the car, under the bright Pensilvania sun. Mulder opened the door for his colleagues and let them in.
To enter bathed in the luminosity created by the sun, filtering through the curtains full of dust. Dana rang the doorbell and a tall, thin blond woman introduced herself and gave them three keys for three different rooms and with communication between them. Everyone took their key and walked in silence to their respective rooms, Mulder had the room between Dana and Skinner's, hiding his smile well to have a room communicating with that of his partner. Dana smiled at the two men as she stormed into her room.
Mulder straightened a jacket as he tried to place it on one of the hangers provided, "So what do you think of the piece?" Mulder snapped at Scully who had opened the door to their bedroom, allowing them to talk to each other normally.
Not quite sure how to answer that, because you never are. Dana said, “Um, that's pretty good yeah. I love colors."
As soon as she could, Dana closed her suitcase, put it on the floor next to her bed and with a barely audible "Goodbye" she left the room. Leaving Mulder puzzled.
She left behind the broken envelope of a Mulder who didn't really understand what was going on at certain times in his Dana's head, he didn't know how to react when she closed without adding anything more, all that became awkward.
Dana roams the halls of the small Hotel which had more than the hallway and bedroom she could have imagined. She just wanted to be alone surely a way to put her mind back together, but why did she need to say put back in place? Damn, she, who was always sure of herself, was in doubt, asking herself the same question tirelessly "Does Mulder love me?" While she knew the answer deep in her heart, although he loved her, at least she tries to convince herself of it often, very often.
She found the cafeteria and took something to fill her stomach which rumbled the lack of food, she took a donut and ate it in a few seconds, to finally be able to go out, she liked solitude, it allowed her to think about it. She wasn't used to having to go and do an investigation knowing almost nothing about the subject, making things difficult for her to manage.
Recent events had turned her upside down, even if she would never tell anyone, she was lost in the face of all this and she really wanted to find her way quickly. She walked around the hotel before spotting a hidden access through the branches that led to a huge expanse of grass, as if the hotel had nothing to do with this field, almost out of time, the sky was sky blue, hardly any clouds above her head, which made the day even more beautiful, she didn't think about her Mulder or her work, as if everything was out of time.
She followed the calls of her first name returning to the hotel to find a worried Mulder.
"Shit Dana, where were you?" He yelled at her
"I've only been gone 30 minutes damn it" she also yelled in incomprehension.
"It's been 4 hours since you left or been you? He asked more calmly seeing the incomprehension in her eyes, simply hugging her happy to have found her." I've been looking for you everywhere" he whispered against her hair.
"Mulder- Mulder I swear there's something wrong with this clearing, time and if, so different, seconds are minutes, minutes are hours Mulder I don't understand" Mulder smiled at him and led him into the room. hotel, swearing never to leave her alone again.
They prepared their arguments to tell Skinner who was aware of Agent Scully's disappearance.
Inside the lobby, the glare of the sun shone through the dusty beige apologies for the curtains that covered each window. The peeling wallpaper was less visible in the sun than in the shade, but the paper itself, garish orange and yellow daisies aged the room at least fifty years. Dana took the hallway back to her room, Mulder following her steps, she could feel him close to her. The pounding in her head wouldn't go away, she tried to remember exactly what had happened, but the thoughts just weren't forming properly, now she couldn't remember why she had entered the clearing, why she had left her room wearing she remembered it 5 minutes ago.
They explained the situation to Skinner who pretended to understand the bits of sentences he was coming out, which for him made no sense, he simply nodded up and down in understanding.
Mulder delicately wrapped a rope around Dana's waist so that if anything happened they had a direct connection to her, he also slipped a watch with a needle that was set to the same time zone as the one he was on. he had in his own hand.
He asked her to collect a butterfly that was flying in the clearing and put it in a jar and bring it back with her, she nodded which meant that she understood and didn't even bother to ask why.
She took a deep breath of fresh air and went back into the field, without looking back, as soon as she was in the field, she noticed that the air was different, everything seemed so much calmer, more serene, it didn't clearly had nothing to do with what she was seeing in the real world, if she could call her world as such.
She opened the jar and delicately slipped a butterfly into it, taking good care to close the jar, she took the time to look at the watch that was in her pocket and observed that only about 10 minutes had passed. , she was horribly stressed, alone in a world totally different from the version she had of the world.
Dana walked quietly observing all around her, she was walking when she observed a little girl a few meters away who was watching her, she called the little girl who fled immediately, she ran after the little girl, but the rope held her back , then she will run in the opposite direction following the rope that should surely lead her to Mulder.
She walked for what seemed like an eternity following this rope, when she came to the end of the rope she took a single step to find Mulder and Skinner were sleeping on chairs they had taken from their bedrooms, she observed that the sun had disappeared to give way to night.
She patted Mulder and Skinner on the shoulders, rousing them from their slumbers, after putting the jar that contained the paillon in the backpack without having seen what it had become after leaving the clearing and the young girl observed in the distance. .
"You would never guess what I saw." Dana said softly.