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Scully is missing.
He hadn’t worried too much about it at first, thinking she was merely running late. But five minutes turned into ten, which turned into thirty, which turned into sixty. It’s going on an hour and a half later when he gets up from his desk, a little more than concerned. He’d tried calling her phone — several times, in fact — only to receive no answer. Naturally, he assumes the worst.
She’s been abducted again. She’s been attacked or otherwise hurt in some way. She’s fallen gravely ill. She’s been killed. The color drains from his face as he considers all the different possibilities and he takes a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself down, but it doesn’t do much to help when he’s already convinced himself something horrible has happened.
He’s aware he’s most likely overreacting, his imagination spiralling out of control as it often does when Scully’s safety is threatened. Realistically, she probably told him a month ago she had something to do today that he forgot as soon as she said it, but all he can think is he has to make sure she’s okay.
He considers going straight to her apartment to check for her there but decides to see Skinner first, just in case she’s with him. He takes the elevator up and power-walks to Skinner’s office, almost colliding with several other agents in his need to find Scully. He mutters half-hearted apologies but doesn’t slow down, determined not to waste any more time. He walks right past Skinner’s secretary at her desk, not sparing her a glance even as she tries to tell him, “Agent Mulder, you can’t...”
He bursts into the room, speaking immediately so Skinner can’t reprimand him for just barging in. “Sir, Agent Scully—”
He comes to an abrupt halt as his eyes land on Scully. She appears to be alive, unharmed, in good health, and in one piece. He gives a sigh of relief before he belatedly notices another man in the room, and his eyes flick between Skinner, the man, and Scully as he realizes he’s going to have to explain himself now.
“Agent Mulder?” Skinner prompts, using that exasperated tone of his that Mulder has come to know quite well. He’s been on the receiving end of it so many times, he has to wonder if Skinner reserves it specifically for him.
“Um,” is all he can say, unsure how to put it without making them think he’s insane. Not that most people at the bureau don’t already think so; this isn’t that out of place considering everything else he’s done while working here.
“Mulder, what’s wrong?” Scully asks, and even despite the embarrassing turn of events, it feels really good to hear her voice after the near-panic he’d just gone through.
Skinner sighs and Mulder can practically sense the assistant director’s blood pressure rising. “Let’s reconvene in five minutes,” he says, ignoring the apologetic look Mulder is giving him.
Scully rises from her seat and approaches Mulder by the doorway, a frown on her face. “What’s going on?”
“I was worried something happened to you,” he admits sheepishly, which she only responds to by furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. He shrugs and elaborates, “You didn’t come in this morning and you weren’t answering your phone, so I thought...”
“Mulder,” she says, and this time it’s her blood pressure he can sense rising. “I was in a meeting to evaluate the state of the X-Files.”
“...Did I know this was happening?”
“Yes! I told you about it weeks ago!”
“Oh.”
“I suppose I should assume you’ve also forgotten they’re going to be talking to you about it tomorrow.” She shakes her head as he shrugs again, before she glances over at Skinner and the other man. “I’d do anything to get out of here, though. We already went through this last year.”
“Well, you know the government. They’ll take any opportunity to keep us from finding out the truth,” he tells her, then pauses as he considers what she said. “If it’s that bad, I can get you out of here.”
“What?” she asks, but he doesn’t answer, instead beginning to step through the door to leave. “Mulder, what do you mean?”
“I’ll see you in a bit, Scully,” he promises as if that explains anything at all, and continues walking out.
“Mulder!” she calls, but he doesn’t turn back. She runs a hand over her face in frustration before turning around to rejoin the others. She smiles awkwardly and says, “Sorry about that.”
“We can continue, I presume?” Skinner asks and she nods, heading back to her seat. They launch back into the evaluation, the auditor mostly asking repetitive questions about the cases she and Mulder have gone on. While Mulder’s paranoia is unfounded a lot of the time, she does know the X-Files division is under constant threat of being shut down. It seems this auditor is searching for any reason or loophole he can find no matter how small it might be, especially when the questions shift to being about Mulder’s validity.
“Sir, I believe Agent Mulder’s state of mind is perfectly normal—”
She pauses when she hears shouting coming from the hallway. Somehow, she instinctively can tell this has something to do with Mulder and her eyes widen in horror; she had been so distracted with proving the necessity of the work they do that Mulder’s proposal to get her out of the meeting early had completely slipped her mind. She doesn’t know what he has up his sleeve but she can tell it’s going to be messy.
Mulder comes running into the room, out of breath with wild hair and an undone tie. He yells something incomprehensible before throwing himself onto the floor and she hates to admit it, she really does, but he actually isn’t too bad of an actor.
Skinner’s secretary comes running in a second later, looking terrified for her life. “Sir, he said he was... possessed by a demon that will only speak to Agent Scully.”
She watches Skinner and the other man exchange an uneasy glance and she resists the urge to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, deciding she has to play along.
She rushes to his side to make her concern look real and he grabs onto her arms, looking up at her with a pained expression. “Scully...”
“What the hell are you doing?” she whispers, because even though she’s playing along, she absolutely cannot encourage this kind of thing.
“I’m your cavalry,” he whispers back with a wink. He yells out again and she takes his head in her hands, examining his face like she would if there were really something wrong with him.
She turns to Skinner and the other man and she’s not sure how she manages it, but she keeps a straight face as she tells them, “I’m sorry, I’m going to take him downstairs to see if we can... fix this.”
And with that, she hauls him to his feet and drags him out of the room, not waiting for a response. They keep it together until they get to the elevator, but Mulder dissolves into a fit of laughter as soon as the doors close. “Oh my god, you should’ve seen their faces!”
“Mulder, you can’t do things like that!” she says, though the effectiveness of her rebuke is ruined because she’s begun laughing as well. “You do know people are going to be talking about this for weeks? Everyone on the floor must’ve heard you!”
“They all already think I’m spooky, don’t they?” he asks dismissively, grinning at her. “Besides, it’s worth it to save you.”
She shakes her head fondly. “You’re impossible.”
“Hey, Scully,” he says as they exit the elevator. “You think this could get me to Hollywood?”
She doesn’t dignify that with an answer. “Shut up, Mulder.”