Archive of Our Own ^beta

“No, Mulder, I have told you very many times that it was a mentally deranged person who attacked the boys. Not a monster.”

“But you can’t be sure that it wasn’t...” Mulder began, and Scully was sure she would have to repeat at least five more times before she could hopefully distract him with something else.

A very large emphasis on the hopefully.

But before that happened, there was a knock on the door and Skinner emerged.

“Agent Scully, someone was asking for you about a kind of poisonous tattoo ink ?” He said impatiently.

Scully was not surprised that he was glaring- in fact, she would have been extremely surprised if he wasn’t.

But whoever was asking about the poisonous ink was probably rather unpleasant to deal with, as she had never seen Skinner this annoyed before.

Her speculation was further proven, when he continued, “We offered to let toxicology handle it, but he specifically would not have anyone else but ‘Dana’.”

She raised her eyebrow and sideways- glanced at Mulder. He shrugged.

“Well, who was this person?” Scully asked. “His name?”

“Ed Jerse.”

Ed Jerse ? As in the guy she almost had a one night stand with?

She did recall him having a tattoo that caused terrible hallucinations- what if it was the same person?

Her sudden and tangled mess of feelings must have shown on her face, as Skinner quickly asked, “Do you know him?”

“I’m sure we’ve heard of him on a case somewhere, it’s not that important.”

“We’ve?” Mulder asked incredulously. “I have photographic memory, we’ve never heard of or seen such guy.”

Scully turned her head around to glare at him.

“Well, maybe this time you forgot. You barely remember half the things I tell you; maybe I mentioned it in passing and you eventually just threw it away in a mental garbage can.”

“Ah, so it’s you who mentioned it in passing, not-”

Mulder was then cut off by an extremely impatient Skinner. “Agents, all I need to know is that this guy isn’t going to threaten your lives, alright, because he’s been refusing to hang up. Anything else, I do not care about.”

“Yes, Sir. Please direct the call to me.” Scully replied, even though she was very sure that she was going to regret this.

And she did, after Mulder opened his mouth.

“Wait- how do we know he’s not going to threaten our lives? I have a bad feeling about this person.” Mulder said, crossing his arms.

He was also rocking back and forth on the half broken desk chair- and maybe it was just her, but he also had this look on his face, as if daring her to retort.

So she didn’t.

“Then I’ll just transfer the call to Agent Scully. Because Mr. Jerse wasn’t asking for you anyways.” Skinner said, muttering the last part.

He quickly walked out, muttering some more.

Scully walked back to their ‘shared workspace’ ( or whatever one could call a desk in the middle of the basement office with two chairs and a mess made by none other than Mulder ) and sat down, not looking at Mulder.

A few minutes later, her own cell phone rang- and she suspected that it had to do with Mulder hastily covering something with tape and glue ( and probably also the fact that she heard a crack somewhere ) and disconnecting the phone transfer system after Skinner left.

She shot Mulder a glare and walked out the room.

“Agent Scully.” She said, trying her best to sound composed- which she definitely was.

“Hey, Dana, it’s Ed. So, I’m all healed and free.” She heard him say nonchalantly.

She paced around and eventually decided to head up to the main office.

“That’s good to hear.” Scully replied. “And you decided to go through all this trouble to call and tell me?”

He chuckled, as Scully cocked her head to the side. “We both almost died- I should thank you.”

She winced just thinking about it. Apparently, the consequences of not doing what she normally did ( like staying at the hotel and not meeting up with random men with tattoos ) included almost dying and then having to follow up with the aforementioned random guy.

“It wasn’t that serious. And you’re welcome.”

She stood there for about a minute- fully intending to hang up, when he asked, “We should meet up again. How’s tonight- dinner?”

But tonight was movie night. With Mulder.

“I’ll think about it.” A second later she added a “Actually, I need to go now, Skinner’s calling me.” before remembering that Ed probably had no idea who Skinner was.

When she finally walked into the basement office, Mulder did not look happy. In fact he was sulking.

“So. Arlene brought us this new assignment that Skinner wanted us to work on.” He said, holding up a manila folder. “She also said that you were meeting someone for dinner.”

Yep, he was definitely sulking. She thought. He was jealous, too.

Scully sat back down on the chair, crossing her legs.

“What if I were?” She wondered aloud, immediately standing up.

“Then I would say that it’s not a good idea to have dinner with a violent person.”

He stood up as well, towering over her, as she reached over to grab the folder with the new assignment.

“Anyways, when did you even meet this guy?” The question sounded more of a statement.

She answered it anyways, with a vague ‘about two years ago’. Scully also muttered a, “You were taking a vacation that day.”

Mulder seemed to be connecting the dots as he nodded.

“So you weren’t very happy when you came back... because of him?”

“No, Mulder, I was not unhappy because of him.” Scully said tersely. “Now, tell me about this guy.”

She pointed a fingernail to a photograph of a man’s face looking rather gruesome.

He did not seem to want to drop the subject, but Scully raised a very persistent eyebrow.

“It looks like flesh eating bacteria. And I’m about to go to a museum twenty five miles away for more information.”

Scully’s phone rang again as she pushed her chair back into the desk.

It was the same number as last time.

She threw her phone back into the bag. “I’m coming with.”

“Scully, it’s not everyday I see you this interested about flesh eating bacteria.” He paused for a moment then added, “Aren’t you having dinner with-”

“Not interested.” She replied. She leaned forward. “And besides, I get to pick the movie tonight.”

They both smiled as they walked out, Mulder’s hand on her back.