Chapter Text
When Bing Crosby sang of a White Christmas, this couldn't have been what he meant.
Scully was surprised there was an attempt to plow the highway, not that it did anything. There was five feet of snow on either side of their car, the mile markers were unreadable, the salt that had been scattered on the road was starting to become ineffective with the new round of snowfall, and the lines of the highway weren't visible. Mulder was driving as cautiously as possible - though she wasn't sure it was possible to drive recklessly at less than ten miles an hour - but she was still thankful that they were the only ones on the road. Clearly, the only two people in the world foolish enough to brave these conditions.
"I'll get us home, Scully. Don't worry."
The reassurance might have worked on her a few hours ago when they initially left. When the forecast guaranteed sunny skies and above freezing temperatures. But now he'd fishtailed three times already, the wind chill put the temperature below negative twenty, and there was a Winter Storm Warning just issued on the radio.
"Mulder, let's pull off at the next exit," she requested, trying to keep her voice gentle so he didn't think she was mad at him.
"We're over halfway there. I'm sure I could get you back before dark," he replied, not risking taking his eyes from the road to look at her.
"It's okay. I'll just call my mom when we find a motel and I'll let her know I'll just miss Christmas Eve and that I'll be there tomorrow," she reassured him.
From the way he clenched his jaw and let out a small sigh of resignation, he knew she was right. "I'm sorry," he apologized.
There were three promises he'd made to her that convinced her to come.
It would take two days, maximum.
They'd get back before she needed to meet her mom on Christmas Eve.
He'd buy lunch next week.
The last stipulation really didn't matter as much as the other two, but he knew it would take a lot to get her away from home so close to the holidays. He'd made sure the lead he'd agreed to follow up on was only a four hour car ride away from D.C, he checked the weather consistently for updates, and he made sure they left with plenty of time to spare.
In classic Scooby Doo whodunit fashion, the 'ghostly happenings' Mulder had been interested in were just a bunch of bored locals tormenting the elderly. The only unexplainable phenomena was the freak snow storm that plagued the area.
"It's honestly okay," she reassured, glad when he nodded in agreement and pulled off to the next frontage road. To be honest, she'd wanted to go on this case to spend more time with him. She knew she'd be away for a few days and she wanted enough time with Mulder to tide her over until after Christmas. She'd just wished it hadn't taken this semi-dangerous turn.
Mulder was apparently starting to gain confidence in his driving now that he was off the main road, feeling bold enough to accelerate to fifteen miles an hour. In the distance, she saw a bright, neon blue sign that was half lit. "BA-ES MOTEL," available vacancies promoted underneath. She sighed in relief at the oncoming solace, despite the apparent heavy construction going on outside.
That relief quickly passed as Mulder drove past the entrance. "Mulder?" she prompted.
"Scully, if I'm keeping you away from family during the holidays. I'm not dragging you to a crappy motel that looks like a death trap," he implored.
She was about to bring up the fact that they had no idea if anything better was going to or would ever come up, but she knew he felt bad and didn't want to make him feel worse. "Thank you," she replied softly.
In the spirit of the holidays, they had a Christmas Miracle of their own as a Hilton sign glowed in the distance. Wordlessly, Mulder pulled into the parking lot and they got their things out of the car, rushing into the hotel for warmth.
Gone were the spiderwebs and lecherous old men of the many motels they checked into. This place has a crystal chandelier, gold speckled countertops, and beautiful marble floors. Mulder let out a low whistle of approval as Scully murmured, "Mulder, this place has to be expensive. We can seriously go back to the motel a couple miles back."
He looked down at her with a boyish, charming smile and assured her, "Don't be silly. I want to do this. It's the least I can do."
She was about to say he didn't owe her anything, but he'd already stepped up to the front counter. "Can I get conjoining rooms, please?" Mulder asked the older woman at the front desk.
"I'm afraid we're all out of conjoining rooms," she said with customary disappointment. Her Loves Baby Soft Perfume was almost suffocating, yet the woman seemed completely unfazed.
"They don't have to attach. Do you have two rooms next to each other?" Scully asked, taking off her gloves.
"No, but we do have accommodations for two," she responded, looking at the computer monitor.
Mulder and Scully looked at each other before looking back to the woman. "Two beds?" Mulder asked softly, sensing the answer.
"No, just one."
"Do you have a room with a king bed?" Scully asked hopefully.
"Actually, yes! The only room we have left is the big suite, which does include a king bed," she informed them.
There was a moment of silence as agitation fell over two thirds of the party and oblivion settled over the other. "Why didn't you lead with that?" Mulder asked evenly.
"You didn't ask," she replied with a shrug.
Mulder sighed and started rubbing his hand over the back of his neck as he clearly thought the plan fell through. His demeanor immediately shifted when Scully spoke up and said, "We'll take it."
The woman began making the accommodations as Mulder turned to Scully. "Are you sure?" he murmured.
"We've shared a bed before, Mulder," she shrugged.
Images of Kroner, Kansas flashed through her mind. The night following the high school reunion was hours spent laying side by side in the darkness, both hugging the edge so tightly they were constantly risking falling off. The occasional "sorry" and "do you have enough room?" would break the uncomfortable silence, but other than a load of tension, nothing happened. The following morning, they both slept like babies on the plane.
Mulder gulped, almost imperceptibly, but nodded. "You're right." There was a beat before he turned to her again and leaned closer to her ear. "Only if you promise to keep your hands to yourself," he murmured.
Luckily, the front desk woman interrupted him before he had a chance to catch her blush. "Cash, check, or credit?"
Despite her offering several times to pay half of the room, Mulder took care of all the information before loading their stuff onto a luggage cart. "We only have two bags. I think we can handle it," she replied quizzically as he handed her the key.
"I forgot something in the car. Do you mind if I meet you up in the room?" he asked.
"Um, no. No, go ahead," she murmured, taking the key from his outstretched hand.
She watched as he walked out of the revolving doors and jogged away. She even waited for a moment, figuring he'd be right back since he just needed to grab something, but he was taking his time. With a tired sigh, she grabbed the trolley and pushed it towards the elevator and made her way to their room.
Holy shit. If they had rooms like this for every case, she'd complain far less.
The room was extravagantly large with a gigantic king bed in the middle of it. There was a large television set with surround sound speakers on the other side of the wall, facing the bed. She set the bags down on the bed before pushing the cart into the hallway. When she came back in, she went to the window to look at the view.
The snow was awful to be in, but beautiful to look at. She could see the snowflakes gently dancing as they fell down several stories onto the banks of snow. Scully felt a small smile quirk up her lip. It was beautiful. From this high up, she felt like she could see miles out. It was like blankets of white, pure and completely undisturbed laid before her.
What the fuck?
In the distant corner of the parking lot, where a small forest started, she saw a bunch of trees moving haphazardly. "Mu-" she started, before realizing he wasn't here to see this. One tree in particular was moving violently back and forth and she didn't understand what possibly could be causing it. She saw a trail of disturbed snow she hadn't noticed before leading from the forest to… their car.
"What the hell is he doing?" she murmured.
She watched at the windows, arm crossed over her chest, for five minutes until she saw Mulder emerge from the woods. He was covered in snow with a branch in his hand.
No. Not a branch. He'd somehow managed to break off the top of a tree so he had a small triangle of a mini tree. Realization dawned on her and she felt her face grow hot. He was making her an impromptu Christmas. A smile broke across her face as she watched him trudge through the snow, his prize swinging back in forth at his side.
Her amusement was interrupted by the muted ringing of her phone. She turned away from the window and rummaged through her bags to find her phone. MOM reflected at her in black against the dull green of the screen and she pressed the button to answer. "Hey, Mom."
"Hey sweetie, is everything alright?" her mom's warm voice answered from the other end.
"I'm fine, but I have some bad news," she replied, walking around the room and touching various surfaces as she spoke.
"Is it Fox? Is he hurt?" Maggie Scully rushed. It was her go-to move with bad news. First, was she herself okay. Second, was 'Fox' okay. A pattern she'd learned through too much experience.
Her mother's worry for Mulder always made the towering man blush in appreciation, and she was glad that another person in the world cared about him like she did. "Mulder is okay too, promise. We just were on our way from a case a few hours away, but halfway back a snow storm hit so we had to stop."
"You're in the middle of that! Oh, Dana, the Winter Storm Warning is in full effect. The Doppler Radar is completely white around it. You were driving in that?" she chastised.
"Well, Mulder was. We're technically only about an hour and a half away, but it would take us all through the night if we tried. I'll be back tomorrow. I'll just miss the presents though," she explained, trying to keep the sadness out of her voice.
Opening presents on Christmas morning was her favorite part and they both knew she didn't like missing it. Two years ago, her Christmas had been completely uprooted by finding out about Emily. The year after, she could sense her whole family was still worried about her. This year she was going to just enjoy the holidays and show them she was fine.
So much for that. She could already hear Bill's condescending comments when her mom tells him why she won't be there.
"The best gift I could get is knowing you're safe and out of the storm. Where are you staying?" she asked.
"Mulder is blaming himself for all of this and feeling really guilty about keeping me away from the family, so he checked us into the Hilton," she explained, turning the lights in the bathroom on and off as she looked at the beautiful, glass panelled shower.
"Well, I consider him an honorary part of our family, so tell him his guilt is misplaced. If you can't be here, I'm glad you're with him," Mrs. Scully reassured. Scully could practically hear her smiling through her implications.
"Mo-o-om," Scully drew out, using the exact same tone she'd get when her mom embarrassed her as a teen.
Mrs. Scully laughed before adding, "I hope you enjoy the hotel sweetie. Try to have fun. I'll make sure to save all your presents from Matthew's enthusiasm in the morning, okay?"
"Okay," Scully nodded with a smile. "I love you."
"I love you, too. Tell Fox I said hello."
"Will do. Merry Christmas, Mom."
"Merry Christmas, Dana."
Scully hung up the phone and tossed it on the bed at the same time a loud knock resonated in the room. She jogged over to the door so she could open it and let Mulder in. "I thought you just said you needed to quickly grab something from the car?" she asked, pretending like she hadn't seen his little excursion into the woods.
He stumbled in, bringing his tree along with a bag resting around his forearm and a serving tray in his other hand. "I may have had to make a few stops along the way," he replied, slightly out of breath.
"Um, Mulder. What is all that?" she asked, pointing towards all his stuff.
He set the serving tray down on a nearby table before turning to her with a shy smile. "I know how much you love Christmas, and I feel really bad that I kinda ruined it for you-" he started.
"Mulder-" she fruitlessly tried to interrupt.
"-so I wanted to try and make it up to you. I know it's not much, but I thought we could have a little Christmas of our own," he explained.
As skillfully as he could, he perched his mini-tree upright and kept it steady by shoving the hotel phone and phone directory on either side of the base. Then, reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a piece of yellow, lined paper he'd cut into the shape of a star and place it on the top. "Tah-dah," he exclaimed with an embarrassed laugh, gesturing to the Christmas Tree.
Encouraged by her genuine, happy laughter, he pulled out his bag and placed several balls of toilet paper under the tree. "What are these?" she asked reaching out, only to have her hand lightly slapped away by Mulder.
"Tsk, tsk," he chastised. "You can't open presents before Christmas."
Her brow furrowed in confused surprise as she looked at the small balls, noting that they were actually little bundles that had been wrapped in toilet paper. "How did you get me presents, Mulder? You were only gone for ten minutes."
He looked at her in surprise and exclaimed in a whisper, "What? You want me to reveal Santa's secrets and end up on the naughty list? Nice try, Scully," he joked.
She raised her hands in mock surrender and stated, "Okay, okay." Turning her attention to the large serving tray, she asked, "Did Santa steal that too?"
A small smirk spread across his lips as he replied, "Just borrowing." He uncovered the tray to reveal a glass of milk and several baggies of Famous Amos cookies.
It was such a ridiculously sweet gesture, she couldn't help the "aww" that escaped her lips.
"So I did good?" he asked.
"You did great, Mulder," she replied, bridging the gap between them so she could slide her arms under his coat to wrap around him in a hug. She felt him hug her back and rest his head on hers.
"I'm sorry I dragged you out here," he mumbled, sending vibrations through her scalp.
"I wouldn't have come if I didn't want to. I knew the risks. But I don't regret it," she murmured.
"Really?" he asked, drawing back to look at her.
She moved so she was looking up at him and shook her head. "I'm happy where I am," she responded, hoping he couldn't feel the way her heart beat grew faster in her chest.
A knock at the door startled them both, making them jump away from each other. Scully looked questioningly at Mulder, who jokingly exclaimed, "He came!"
Scully rolled her eyes before watching him go to answer the door, exchanging money with a bell boy before bringing in another tray. "Another present?" she asked.
He set the tray on the table and opened it to reveal two plates adorned with ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and an assortment of other goodies. A surprisingly well put together Christmas meal. Mulder looked at her stunned expression with a smile before proudly declaring, "Dinner is served."