Chapter Text
Scully was pulled from sleep by the sound of an alarm screeching, a loud muttering of some choice words, a bang and then blessed silence. Her head was pounding, her mouth was dry and she immediately remembered exactly why she didn’t drink very often With eyes still closed, she was just about ready to return to the amazing dream she’d been having, one where she’d had the unbelievable sight of her partners head between her legs, when she felt the bed shift and a featherlight touch skim the base of her spine.
Her eyes snapped open at the gentle touch and with the gentle brush of a hand, a flood of memories came rushing back and she flushed at the realisation that it hadn’t all been a dream; she actually had had her partners head between her legs at some point and he had been so very, very good at it. Her hands flexed and her pulse spiked as an image of gripping his hair as she came, hard, flashed through her mind.
Fingers stroked with a feather light touch down her spine and she worked on controlling her breathing and prolonging the sweet agony of his touch, but when his fingers circled her tattoo, she hitched a breath and with the gentle rumble of laughter she heard, he knew she was awake. Turning her head, she looked at him through the veil of her hair and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth to hide a smile. Through the titian strands, she could see that he was looking at her as though she was a rare and exquisite treasure that should be handled with care. She kind of liked him looking at her that way.
Mulder reached up and swept the hair back from her face, tucking it behind her ear so he could see her properly and when she looked at him unobstructed, he lowered his hand to the dip of her back and left it there. He wanted to kiss her, but he had no idea where she was at this morning. Last night had been amazing, but he was concerned that if he tried to kiss her now, she would potentially smack him. Or worse. While he didn’t think it had been a mistake, and a small part of him suspected she felt the same, until she actually told him what was going on inside her head, he was going to keep the physical contact to a minimum. Except, he realised, when she was lay there with the smooth expanse of her back on view, he was having a difficult time keeping that distance.
“Morning,” he mumbled, his voice gravelly from alcohol, lack of sleep and… something else altogether alluring. “Sleep well?”
Scully nodded and shifted so she could yawn into her pillow. “It’s too early,” she moaned, closing her eyes again.
“It is. We need to be at the airfield in a couple of hours.”
Scully groaned, tugged the covers that were somewhere around her hips up over herself and rolled over onto her back. She sighed and cast a glance at him. “That last beer was a mistake, don’t you think?”
Startled, Mulder cleared his throat awkwardly. “Well, that all depends on uh… whether you consider anything else… a mistake.”
She stared at him and realised he thought she was regretting what they’d done, that she had only slept with him because she was drunk. His insecurity knew no bounds sometimes. Keeping her breathing even, Scully turned onto her side and scooted towards him, forcing back a smile when his eyebrows shot up to his hairline. As she lay a gentle hand on his cheek and without giving him a chance to react, she leant over and kissed him with all the confidence of someone who had been in a long term relationship. In a way, they had, just without the physical aspect.
“The beer was a mistake,” she emphasised, pulling back just enough to look at him. “Not this.”
Scully watched him carefully as he raked his eyes over her and considered what she was actually saying and the almost reverent look on his face took her breath away. She had seen that look many times over the years she had worked with him, times when he was certain she wasn’t paying attention, but she had never really considered the meaning behind it before. It was a look that said he couldn’t quite believe that she was here with him and now that that they had crossed that metaphorical line in the sand and were moving beyond the platonic status quo they had found themselves mired in for months, it meant so much more to him.
All at once, as he came to understand what she was telling him, a wide, bright smile split his face and he kissed her again. Scully laughed against his lips as she fell backwards, tugging him with her. Their kisses quickly turned serious and despite the pounding headache and despite the fact that they had a flight leaving in a few short hours, she found herself being drawn back in by him much as she had last night.
Mulder dragged his lips across Scully’s jaw and neck, encouraged by her gentle moans and nails digging into his scapula. A sudden thought occurred to her though, causing her to chuckle and murmur his name.
“Hmm?” He didn’t look up from her neck where he was currently pressing tender and loving kisses across her clavicle.
“You know when they said male and female agents shouldn’t consort in the same room while on assignment?” Her voice was husky with want and when he raised his head from her shoulder and looked at her smirking face, he could t help but wonder where she was going with this. “I think this is what they meant.”
The bed shook with his laughter, but then his lips found hers again for a soft kiss. She tried to pull back after a moment to speak to him, but he followed, keeping their mouths connected despite her quiet laughter. Rolling onto her back, she tugged him with her and slipped her hands around him, dragging her fingers across his back and up to his hair. She revelled in the new found freedom of touching him like this, the way she’d always wanted to.
Their kisses grew hungrier and hungrier as the fire grew between them. Fingertips scorched paths across skin and lips burned wherever they landed and as their bodies joined and moved together, their mutual gasps and moans filled the air. Scully didn’t believe in fate. She didn’t. Her destiny was that of her own making, she’d always followed the path that she wanted to.
However, as she felt Mulder slide inside her again, in the deepest recesses of her mind, she couldn’t deny the feeling that an age old connection had been made, like there had been a deep bond created that would last for the rest of her life. She couldn’t explain it and if she was honest with herself, she didn’t want to. All she knew, all that mattered, was that being with Mulder was where she needed to be, where she wanted to be and from the way he was looking at her, kissing her, touching her, with that reverence she had seen on his face, he felt it too.
Afterwards, sated and breathless, Mulder looked down at her with a smile and tucked his face into her neck, pressing his lips against her skin and breathing heavily. Scully sighed happily and ran her fingers through his hair as she kissed his temple, tasting the salty tang of his sweat on her lips and savouring the heavy weight of him on top of her. Tears stung her eyes as the intensity of the last twelve hours began to hit her, but she blinked them away, not wanting him to see her so emotional and worry that she didn’t want this or had made a mistake. There would never be a day when she didn’t want him, she knew that without an ounce of doubt in her mind.
Mulder rolled off her after a few moments when he had got his breathing under control and tugged her carefully into his side, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pressing a kiss to her forehead. He was content and happy and didn’t want to leave and go back to reality. Maybe, he thought to himself, if I say nothing, she’ll forget about having to go home.
“We should be making a move or we’ll miss our flight,” murmured Scully while she traced her fingers through Mulder’s sparse chest hair.
He huffed a laugh and kissed her forehead again. She was really good at unintentionally reading his mind. “Let’s stay here,” he muttered with a smile as he closed his eyes. “Let’s quit our jobs and forget about international government conspiracies.”
Scully chuckled softly. “What would we do?” she asked. “You’re not cut out to be a cattle farmer and I’m not sure my skills as a pathologist are easily transferable.”
“Sheila and Holman will get us jobs at the TV station. You’d be their beautiful news anchor and have legions of fans and me, well, I’ll be their resident conspiracy theorist. I’ll have my own segment about aliens and use my platform to convince the world of their existence.”
Scully chuckled and tilted her head to kiss the underside of his jaw. “It sounds nice,” she whispered, thinking that it actually really did sound nice. “But I have a lunch date with my mom on Saturday that I have no intention of missing.” She rolled out of his arms, grabbed Mulder’s T-shirt and her underwear from the floor and pulled them both on. “I’m going to jump in the shower,” she told him, walking towards the bathroom, but she hesitated in the doorway and looked back at him, pulling her lip between her teeth to hide a full blown smile. “You coming?”
He grinned and hurried out of bed to follow her. He didn’t need asking twice.
Mayor Gilmore met them at the airport at 8.30 before they boarded the small propellor plane that would take them back to Topeka to catch their flight home. Their bags were safely stowed away and now Mulder was doing all he could to distract Scully from thinking about the thirty minute flight ahead of them. She hated flying at the best of times, but flying in a propellor driven plane that bounced around at the slightest hint of turbulence, made her particularly anxious.
She’d told him once that even though she understood the science behind planes remaining airborne, it didn’t make it any easier to get in one. Putting her life in the hands of someone to keep a metal tube from plummeting to the ground, took every ounce of faith she had inside her. As a field agent, she didn’t have a choice about flying across the country – the FBI wouldn’t reimburse her for train tickets and it would take for too long to drive – but it certainly didn’t make it any easier.
The Mayor approached Mulder and Scully as they waited for their pilot to finish his pre-flight checks. Mulder noticed that Scully was trying not to pay too much attention to what the man was doing, but at the same time needed to know he was doing everything right. She had shot him one of her patented you’re pissing me off looks ten minutes ago when he’d told her to relax. He took a lot of reassurance from that look; despite the new aspect to their relationship, he was still able to annoy the shit out of her.
“Agents,” he began with a smile as he walked towards them. “I just wanted to come and thank you again for everything you did for us here. I can’t say that I’m entirely sure what you did, but whatever it was, it worked.”
Scully’s eyes flicked to the Mayor and she shook her head. “We didn’t-”
“You’re welcome,” interrupted Mulder, smiling broadly at the other man. “We at the FBI are always happy to help.”
“I appreciate that,” grinned the Mayor, rocking on his heels, looking as though there was something else he wanted to say. After a moment, he rubbed a hand across the back of his neck and switched his gaze from one agent to the other before speaking. “Say, you two didn’t feel anything… strange, last night did ya?”
“What do you mean?” Mulder asked.
“Well, it’s just that there’s some talk in town about an earthquake? Well, not so much an earthquake… more like the earth just… moved.”
Scully choked on a breath and turned away to cough into her hand and hide the blush that she knew was burning her cheeks. Mulder feigned innocence and shook his head. “Uh, no… no er… did the earth move for you last night Scully?”
“Absolutely not,” she replied, fighting the urge to kick him squarely in the shin as the Mayor chuckled at Mulder’s innuendo. “Oh look,” she said with a false brightness, gesturing behind them. “I think our plane is ready Mulder.”
“Ah yeah, I should let you both get going,” nodded the Mayor. “Thanks again Agents. Have a safe journey home, wontcha.”
Hands were shook and soon after Mulder and Scully were heading towards Topeka to catch their connecting flight. The flight was anything but smooth and because the plane was so small, only big enough for two passengers, with every jostle and every gust of wind it felt as though their bones were shaking. At one point, after a particularly brutal hit of turbulence, the plane felt like it had lost several thousand feet of altitude, causing Scully to gasp loudly, grab hold of the head rest of the pilots seat in front of her with one hand and clutch Mulder’s hand with her other.
He said nothing, he simply held her hand, letting her squeeze it for the duration of the flight and sent up his own silent prayers to any god that may have been listening in the hopes that they made it to Topeka in one piece. Mulder was just glad that the contents of his stomach remained where they were. His hangover was kicking in and the last thing he needed was to throw up all over the interior of this small plane. He doubted the FBI would pay for the cleaning of the upholstery and Scully would kick his ass.
To both of their relief, the plane landed safely at Topeka Regional Airport not long after the turbulence had hit and Mulder could have sworn that it was only when the wheels were back on solid ground, that he saw Scully breathe again. She gave his hand a final, grateful squeeze and let go, running her hands through her hair and readying herself for disembarking.
“That was hell,” Scully complained while they stood in the check in line for their flight home. She’d been silent for the last fifteen minutes while they made their way into the terminal to check their bags for the flight back to Washington. “In fact,” she pointed out, “that was worse than the medical evac from McMurdo.”
Mulder nodded and laughed, remembering how turbulent the flight from Antarctica to the Falkland Islands on the first leg of their journey home had been. Even with concussion and severe exhaustion and being more concerned with Scully’s condition, he had been fully aware that the journey from Antarctica to the refuelling station in the Falklands had been terrible.
“It was pretty bad,” he agreed.
They shuffled forward in the queue. “You think Kersh is going to realise we absconded from our assignment to fly to Kroner?” Scully asked, glancing up at him as she used her plane ticket as a fan. She wasn’t sure whether she was feeling so warm because of the alcohol sweating itself out of her pores, the adrenaline disappearing after the flight or the sunshine pouring in through the huge plate glass windows of the airport. Either way, she was swelteringly hot.
“Probably not.” Mulder shrugged, indicating that he didn’t particularly care whether their superior found out or not. “I think he’s just glad to get us out of his hair for a while.” Mulder glanced at her and cleared his throat. “Hey so uh, I was thinking. I know you’re seeing your mom on Saturday, but if you’re not busy in the evening, do you… want to come over and I dunno, watch a movie or something? I could make dinner.”
“Oh… you’re going to cook?”
Mulder rolled his eyes. “I can cook Scully, you don’t have to sound so surprised.”
“I’m not, I’m not, I just… didn’t think you could.”
They shuffled forward again in the queue and Mulder chuckled. “Yes, I can cook. I choose not to because it’s too much effort and cleaning up for one. I’ll have you know I took home economics classes in high school.”
Scully glanced up at him and smirked. “You liked a girl didn’t you.”
“I liked a girl,” he admitted with a laugh. “Loretta Baker. She had huge-”
“Okay, thank you, I don’t need the details,” interrupted an amused Scully, giving him a gentle elbow in the ribs.
“Ow,” he laughed, rubbing his side. “I was going to say eyes.” Scully’s smirk told him that she didn’t believe him. “So is that a yes then?”
Scully nodded and licked her lips and she noticed a swell of pride flood through him that was hard to miss. She was looking forward to seeing how things were going to develop for her and Mulder. And cooking? He could cook? She sighed happily as they reached the front of the queue and pushed their weekend plans from her mind, while they checked in for their flight.
The departure lounge was bustling, but somehow they’d managed to snag a table by the window overlooking the runway. It was noisy and warm and the Tylenol that Scully had taken for her headache wasn’t yet taking effect. She glanced over shoulder just in time to see Mulder weaving his way through the crowd, holding a tray that contained two white paper bags and two takeout cups. There and then she made a promise to herself that she was never drinking again. Or at least, not drinking while on assignment ever again.
Mulder sat down heavily in the chair opposite, removed the cups and bags from the tray and leant it against the window by his feet. For a few minutes, they sat in silence while they poured milk and sugar into their coffees and waited for the caffeine to hit their bloodstreams and begin the process of clearing their hangovers.
“So,” began Scully as she felt the the caffeine begin to take effect. “The earth moved last night.”
Mulder looked at her, nodded and smirked. “Clearly Holman and Sheila got lucky. Which is weird because it was the weather affected by Holman’s emotions. Or maybe because things turned physical with Sheila, it caused his powers, whatever, to manifest themselves as something tangible, hence the earthquake.” He sipped his own coffee and allowed a small smile to curl his lips upwards. “But,” he continued, lowering his voice a little, “they weren’t the only ones who got lucky last night, were they?” He watched her attempt and fail at hiding a smile, then reached over and caught her hand in his, bringing it to his lips so he could kiss the inside of her wrist.
“Mulder,” she murmured, glancing around the airport lounge in case anyone was watching them. He noticed that she didn’t pull her hand away though.
“Nobody cares Scully,” he replied quietly. “I could stand on this table right now and yell at the top of my lungs that you and I did the wild thing last night and this morning, and I promise you, nobody would care.”
She huffed a laugh and shook her head as a flush crept up and over her cheeks. “Please don’t, don’t do that.”
He grinned, gave her wrist a final kiss and released her hand. “Hey, listen, I uh, I know that when we get home we’ll have to be a little more discreet, but just know that I uh… I want to, okay?” He saw a gentle flush rise on her cheeks when she sipped her coffee again and he grinned a little. “And listen, before we get back home and I have to act like nothings changed, I just want you to know that I uh… that last night was… well, it wasn’t because we’d been drinking, y’know?”
“I know,” Scully replied, reaching back over the table to take his hand in hers. “But I appreciate you telling me that anyway.”
“And I hope you know that I meant what I said,” he added, running a finger over the back of her hand and pinning her with his gaze. “Before, during, after. All of it. You’re the only one I want.”
Scully nodded and gave him a half smile then turned her hand over and twined her fingers with his for a brief squeeze. After sharing an intense gaze for a few moments, she let go and began unwrapping the cream cheese bagel that Mulder had bought her. She really, really, hoped that it would go some way to settling her slightly queasy stomach before they had to board the plane.
“Hey Scully?” She looked up at him as she chewed and raised an eyebrow at him. “Did the earth really not move for you?”
Her eyes shone with amusement and her lips quirked in a smirk. Mulder grinned right back at her, knowing the answer to that question and began inhaling his bacon, sausage and cheese bagel.
Soon, their flight was called and they boarded the plane back to DC. They both knew that there were going to be a lot of minefields to traverse in their future. There would have to be some serious conversations taking place, and soon, if they were going to iron out any potential misunderstandings. Scully had to make Mulder understand that just because they were sleeping together now, she wasn’t going to change her whole belief systems for him. She was no Stepford wife who always agreed with their spouse. Mulder knew that and would hopefully not expect that of her. She doubted it; Mulder may have been in a pain in the ass at times, but he wasn’t a misogynistic asshole who would expect whoever he was in a relationship with to become a simpering fool who agreed with everything he said. No, he was a good man who liked the challenge he got from working with her.
As the plane took off and Scully did her usual thing of grasping Mulder’s hand tightly until the pilot reached cruising altitude, she felt a little more relaxed than she usually did. Maybe it was knowing that things were changing for them, or maybe it was the fact that after the flight they’d taken from Kroner to Topeka, anything else would pale in comparison.
Whatever it was, she just knew that as long as she had the man holding her hand by her side, in any capacity, she would be fine. They both would.