Work Text:
Her phone was ringing.
Her phone was ringing and she was going to kill him.
Scully moved her head slightly, fumbling for her phone before bringing it to her ear, “I’m going to kill you.” She hadn’t even found the motivation to open her eyes yet, but she knew she was going to kill him. A small laugh came from him on the other side of the phone, a little crackly but him all the same.
“I mean it Mulder, if this is an x-file, at—” She paused, finally cracking her eyes open to see her clock, red numbers staring her in the face, 2:47 almost burning her eyes in the inky blackness of her bedroom, “at quarter-to-three in the morning, then I’m going to kill you even more.”
“It isn’t an x-file,” He promised, pausing with a small yawn that she almost recognized from cases. It was the little suppressed yawn, where he didn’t want to reveal how tired he truly was, where he only wanted to keep talking to her about anything in particular, rather than falling asleep.
“Mulder, we have work in about five hours. Is there any way this can wait until we’re in the office?” She rubbed her eyes, letting them fall shut again after a moment. She knew he wouldn’t be talking about anything too important or work-related, or that if it was, he’d bring it up again once they were in the office.
There was a pause almost long enough where if it was any other person she’d assume they’d fallen back asleep, however this was Mulder. “Yeah, we can talk tomorrow.” Scully could hear a small smile in his voice, she could hear the odd shift in his voice.
The pause lasted longer this time, neither of them hung up, even though a sense of finality seemed to come with Mulder’s words.
“What’s going on?” Her voice stayed simple and quiet. Every night since she’d gotten home he’d found some reason to call her, some reason to show up at his apartment. She hadn’t brought it up—neither of them had—she’d assumed it would settle and she found no need for the awkward conversation if there was no point to it.
However now it was almost 3am again, and she was so close to dozing again, lay sideways and letting her phone balance on her ear carefully so that she could remain curled up under her duvet and cozy and she needed to know what was going on with him, so that they could both finally get some rest.
“What d’ya mean?”
She knew he was likely on his couch—she didn’t think he actually even used that bed of his—and that there was a high probability that he hadn’t even changed from his work clothes.
“Mulder,” She said, almost forcing a more stern tone in her voice, hoping that further poking would get him to actually speak to her. “You know what I mean, talk to me or I’m going back to sleep.” She knew that he likely knew that was an empty threat, she didn’t care though. There was the possibility she was going to fall asleep by accident anyway on the phone to him.
Silence rang out again .
“I needed to know you were still here.” The simplicity of the statement hung heavier than anything he could’ve said and it clicked.
“I’m here.” She said, her voice returning to the more gentle tone, “I’m not going anywhere, Mulder.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” She repeated. “But I am hoping to go to sleep , however, if it’s any comfort to you, I can leave the phone on until you fall asleep. So you know I’m still here,” She suggested.
“You don’t have to Scully, I don’t mind leaving you to sleep. It was stupid and I know you’re okay—I know you’re there.” He sounded almost defensive.
“I know, but just so you can sleep.” She argued, despite having absolutely no energy to argue and hoping that he was also tired enough that he’d simply cave. He’d been plagued with nightmares as long as he knew her—probably longer—but since her abduction he seemed to be barely sleeping—if at all. She wasn’t certain this could help, but she got the feeling this would ease his worries at least slightly.
“You sure you’ll be able to sleep too?”
“If I can’t, I will hang up on you.”
“Alright,” He laughed slightly and softly, “Goodnight, Scully.”
“Goodnight, Mulder.”
She focused on his soft breathing on the other end of the line as she peacefully drifted back to sleep.