Chapter Text
“So, I just told Kevin, ‘I love spending time with you, but you’re suffocating me!’ I mean, he is so sexy and such a good time, but the guy was practically ready to put a ring on my finger and I just had to be honest with him. I have so much left to do, so much left to see, and so many people left to meet, I just can’t even consider settling down any time soon. And what do I get for being honest? He calls me a heartless bitch and turns all of OUR friends against me.” Melissa Scully scoffs, slouched on her sister’s couch.
Dana scully takes a sip from her tea cup, taking in her sister's stories from her latest life adventures and romantic mishaps.
“So, that was it. I just had to get out of that city, my time there had ended.” She continues.
“Thus brings you back home, into my living room.” Dana smirks. Her sister's ability to pick up and leave at a moment's notice never fails to amaze her. A product of their upbringing, she supposes. A skill she also has used in her time.
“Yeah, thanks for letting me stay here, by the way.” Melissa replies, taking a drink from her own cup of tea.
“Of course. It’s been too long since we’ve been able to spend time together. How long do you think you’ll stick around for this time?” She asked lightly.
Melissa considered the question momentarily, “I’m not sure really. Until I get bored I guess,” she laughs.
Dana suppresses an eye roll. Her sister’s free bird lifestyle became less enchanting the older she got. While she didn’t think that Melissa should have to settle down or find a nice boy to marry, she couldn’t fully support or understand the flakiness of it all.
“So Dane’s, what about you?” She asked, quirking an eyebrow.
“What about me?” Scully feigned ignorance, knowing her life lacked the kind of romantic excitement Missy was used to.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. Have you been seeing anybody since you broke up with that brickwall of a boyfriend, Ethan?”
“No, no. Nothing serious. WIth my job, I don’t really have the time to date anyone.” Scully said, hoping to drop the conversation.
“Well, if you're spending so much time at work, you must be spending ample time with that partner of yours. What was his name again?” Scully didn’t suppress her eye roll this time, knowing that Missy very well knew his name and was obviously baiting her.
“His name is Mulder and we are just coworkers. Partners. Less than partners actually, we’ve been separated to different assignments for the time being.” Scully sighs, hoping this current arrangement truly is temporary.
“Tell me more about him.” Missy asked eagerly, repositioning herself on the couch next to Dana to sit upright facing her.
“Well,” Scully paused, taking a moment to choose her words carefully, not wanting to disclose the wrong information to her sister. She couldn’t deny that she had a small crush on her partner. However, it was one she was not necessarily proud of, was hoping would fade away soon enough, and definitely did not want to tell her sister about. “I enjoy working with him. He’s difficult and impossible, unbelievably frustrating, but also brilliant. Even though we’re separated, we still consult on many cases together. He challenges me everyday.”
“That’s great! I knew you made the right choice.” She winks.
Scully smiles genuinely to herself. She continues to have moments of guilt and uncertainty about her career choice since her father passed away. Although she wouldn’t admit it, the reassurance means a lot to her.
“So, does he have a pretty package to match that brilliant, impossible brain?” Missy asked coyly.
Scully scoffed, but couldn’t hide her slight blush and smirk. “Um, he’s-” She was cut off by a knock at the door. She excused herself from the couch and went to answer her caller begrudgingly, knowing there was only one person who would be showing up at her door unannounced at 8:30pm on a Thursday night. Her suspicions are confirmed when she opens her door to Mulder wearing his suit from the day, looking slightly worn and disheveled. His sleeves rolled up around his elbows, tie loosened, and top few buttons undone holding a pile of files. Annoyingly handsome.
“Hey scully, sorry to bother you at home, but I was at the office going over those autopsy results from Scranton,” Mulder says in the doorway. “Something doesn’t seem to be adding up based on the medical examiners preliminary findings and I wanted to get your medical opin- oh,” He stopped himself when he noticed the young woman sitting on Scully’s couch smiling at him. Feeling embarrassed, he blushed slightly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. This can really wait until tomorrow.”
“No, no you aren’t interrupting.” He cocks his head and gives her a look. “Okay, you are, but that’s alright. Come in.” She gestures him into her living room, closing the door behind them. “I want to introduce you to my sister.” She rejoins her sister on the couch.
“Fox Mulder, this is my sister Melissa Scully. Melissa, Mulder.” She says gesturing between them.
“Hi, good to meet you.” Missy smiles brightly, extending her hand. Mulder shakes it before sitting in the armchair across from the sisters.
“Yeah, you too. It’s always nice to meet another Scully.” He smiles.
Melissa snorts, “you say that now, but you may change your tune if you ever meet Bill.” Scully can’t help but laugh as well.
“Yeah, you think I give you a hard time, you should see what a ball buster he is.” Scully adds. Mulder is slightly taken aback by her relaxed and carefree energy, but enjoys it.
“I don’t know. We’ll just have to see, I doubt there’s a Scully I couldn’t charm.” Him and Scully share a knowing look. He had accidentally met Mrs. Scully last month in a similar fashion. She was so smitten with him, she sent him home with his own casserole for leftovers and often asked her daughter about him.
Melissa smiled at him, seemingly unaware of the private joke, feeling charmed herself. “So, Fox, what a great name!”
Mulder is broken from his moment with Scully, remembering the other person in the room. He smiles sheepishly, “that’s easy to say when it’s not your name.”
“Oh, all kids get made fun of for their names at one point or another. Danes here used to call me Prissy Missy.” She gestures to her sister. “It got on my last nerve when we were kids.”
Scully laughs, “Sorry! But, you were quite prissy, Missy.” She says affectionately. Melissa playfully nudges her. Mulder watches the interaction wistfully, enjoying the camaraderie between siblings even as adults.
“Yeah, well it’s not just kids you gotta worry about when you got a name like Fox. Although, I’m more commonly known by my nickname, ‘Spooky Mulder’ now.” He says self-deprecatingly.
“Aww, don’t tell me you still get bullied even as an FBI Agent.” Melissa says with sympathy on her face, knowing full-well the behaviours her sister has had to deal with in the boys club.
“Absolutely. In fact, most bullies grow up and decide to go into fields such as law enforcement. They continue to crave a sense of social high ground and control over other people.” He says matter of factly.
“Oh, not Dana. She wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“No,” Scully adds. “We’re on the other side of that spectrum. We were the ones who got bullied and decided to go into fields such as law enforcement to help protect and bring justice to those who need it.” She smirks at Mulder and he smiles back.
“Exactly.” He says softly.
Melissa continues to gaze at Mulder. “It’s kinda poetic and romantic when you put it like that.”
Scully smiles at him and shrugs before taking a sip from her tea. “Do you want anything to drink Mulder?”
“No, thank you. I really should head out.” He says standing. Scully stands up as well to walk him to the door.
“Sure, just leave the autopsy results and I’ll take a look at them in the morning and get back to you.”
“Thanks. Well, it was nice to see you Scullys.” He waves at both women before winking at Scully and turning to walk down the hall.
Scully closes the door, taking a deep breath knowing how her sister will react. She starts before Scully makes it all the way back to the couch.
“Oh. My. Goodness.” She says exasperated. Scully sighs, floppy down on her spot on the couch. “Why didn’t you tell me he was gorgeous?!”
“First of all, I didn’t get around to it. Second of all, he’s my coworker. I don’t really look at him like that.” She lies, knowing it’s not very convincing.
“What are you blind?” Melissa asks dramatically.
Scully rolls her eyes. “Look, we work well together and I don’t want anything to get in the way of our professional relationship. The Bureau already has us separated, they don’t need any more ammunition to make this a permanent arrangement. Besides, he definitely doesn’t see me that way either so it’s all a moot point.” Scully sighs heavily.
“Hmm, do you know if he’s currently seeing anyone?”
“Mulder? No way.” She pauses to consider this. “I mean, I don’t think so.”
“Would it be weird if I asked him out? I mean, he’s so sexy, and I know you told me before he’s kinda out there. I feel like we might really connect.”
“Oh, Missy, I don’t know how I feel about that.” She sighed at the predictable behaviour of her sister. Flashbacks from their teen years playing in Scully’s mind; Melissa, the older, more beautiful sister that all the boys liked, while little Dana was quiet and made a better friend than girlfriend.
“Okay, well what if we invite him over for dinner on the weekend. I would like to get to know him better.”
“So what? I host a date for you two then third wheel?”
Melissa thought for a moment, clearly desperate to spend more time with Scully’s partner. “What if I invite my friend Andre? Then it can be more like a double date/dinner party type thing. Please Dana, I think it would be so much fun.” Melissa puts on a pout, knowing how eager her sister is to please others.
Dana sighs at her sister's manipulation, but ponders the idea for a moment. “I’ll think about it.”
Melissa jumps up to give Dana a hug and kiss on the cheek before shrieking, “Thank you! Thank you!”
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That night, Dana lies in bed contemplating her sister’s request. While she and Mulder have become closer in a personal sense since being reassigned from the X-files, this still seemed like unfamiliar and uncomfortable territory. The thought of Missy and Mulder dating made her skin crawl and her stomach twist with jealousy. However, she couldn’t really tell her sister that, besides it didn’t matter how she felt about him considering she would never make a move on him. She knew they both had a bad history of getting involved with coworkers and didn’t want to repeat that.
She didn’t even know if Mulder would be interested in spending more time with the Scully girls. Sure he was very charming and friendly this evening, but she knew that under all his off-putting personality traits, he did have the best manners that New England money could buy. That was apparent when he met her mom. She had never seen him so agreeable. She didn’t want him to agree to coming over just to be nice, thus making things more awkward.
However, the more she thought about it, the more she couldn’t deny that Mulder and Melissa probably would get on very well. They were both open-minded, hopeful and believers of the paranormal and fantastical. They definitely would make a beautiful couple. She imagined them at UFO conventions or star-gazing in the New Mexico desert. Her mind then wandered to the type of hippy dippy, free range children they would have together.
Calm down, Dana. Inviting him to dinner is not the same as welcoming him into the family as a brother in-law. Oh, God…
She cringed internally, rolling over to cover her head with her blanket, attempting to stop the mental spiralling. Instead, she thought about how Mulder may actually appreciate an invitation. She knew that he didn’t have a lot of friends nor family. It may be nice for him to have dinner with them and Melissa’s friend Andre. And if Melissa and him hit it off, that would just have to be okay with her. She loved Melissa and wanted Mulder to be happy. Deciding that she would take the risk, she made a plan to call him tomorrow to gauge his reaction to the invitation.
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The next morning, Scully arrived at Quantico and began looking over the autopsy results Mulder brought by the night before. Thankful to have a guise to open up her eventual call and invitation to him. By mid-morning, she mustered up the courage to give him a call. Equally annoyed and embarrassed about her nervousness to invite him to a dinner hosted at her house. Sure they ate together quite often, but this felt different. Especially knowing where her sister’s head was.
She took a deep breath while dialing his phone number. He answered on the first ring, presumably knowing it would be her calling.
“Mulder.”
“Hi, it’s me.”
“Hi me, did you have a chance to look over that autopsy yet?” She could hear the smile in his voice. She enjoyed their recent conversational lightness.
“I did. The toxicology results show that the individual had abnormally high levels of fentanyl, acetyl fentanyl, and morphine, which are consistent with the track marks on their arms, however these would not account for the orange, brown, and blue spots appearing on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet. In fact, they were unable to find any conclusive reasoning for it. I’d say there is definitely more to be considered here. Our labs at Quantico may be able to perform more conclusive and sophisticated tests that could give us more answers”
“That’s what I thought. I’ll give the Scranton Medical Examiner this afternoon and see what I can do about getting the body shipped to you. This is the fifth body that has been found in this condition in the last month from states ranging from Pennsylvania to New York.”
“You think there’s a new drug on the street with adverse side effects?”
“I have a couple theories of my own, but I would love to hear what my favourite pathologist digs up first though.” She can hear the smile return to his voice. She rolls her eyes, but can’t hold back a smirk of her own.
“Yeah, yeah. Save that charm for the Scranton ME.”
“Fine, I will. Thanks again, Scully.”
“You’re welcome. But, hey, I have a question for you.”
“Uh, oh. Okay, what’s up?” He asked, lightly.
“Are you busy tomorrow evening?”
There’s a pause on the other end of the line, Mulder taken aback by the question.
“Uh, Scully, When have you known me to have plans on a Saturday evening?”
“Oh, I don’t know, you could have plans with Gunmen or perhaps a hot date with one of your 1-900 girls.” she teases him.
“You coming onto me, Scully?” He jokes back. They both laugh.
“No, it’s just that with my sister staying with me, I was thinking of doing a dinner thing. She has a friend she wants to have over, I thought it might be fun if you wanted to come too. No pressure though.” Scully closes her eyes, feeling silly again about her nervousness. Their closer personal relationship still feels new and fragile. She’s afraid any sudden movements could destroy it.
“Oh,” He says, sounding genuinely surprised by the invitation. “Uhh, that actually does sound like fun. Sure, Scully.”
She lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “Great. I’ll see you at my place tomorrow, say around 6pm?”
“Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll see you then.”
“See you.” She hangs up the phone, feeling a mixture of relief and new found anxiety now that he has agreed to dinner. While she has gone back and forth with the idea for the last 12 hours, she starts to wonder whether this was a mistake. She only hopes she doesn’t come to regret it.