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She can see it in his eyes that he is tired beyond belief. They'd spent the whole week arranging the funeral, in the midst of the case they were on, and now she could see that it was all taking its toll on him, as he drove.
“Pull over.” Scully says, her hand brushing away a lock of hair that has fallen into her face.
Mulder does not argue; he is too tired to. He pulls the car over to the side of the road, turning on the hazard lights as a precaution, and turns to face Scully as much as he can in the limited space granted by the wheel and the driver’s seat. His elbow lands somewhere in the gaps of the steering wheel, so that just enough of a lean to the side can cause a disruptive honk.
“Let me drive for a while… You look exhausted.” Scully mentions, wanting to touch his face, and thinking better of it. He reaches out to hold her hand, however, and for a long time, they both say nothing. Her mind remembers the way that she showed up to his apartment to help him deal with his grief, and the kind of love they had made on his couch, and the tears that followed. The next morning, Skinner turned up to find Mulder and was greeted by Scully at his door, wearing his clothes.
“Okay,” Mulder agrees, bringing Scully’s mind to the present. Mulder exits the car and moves around the front to sit in the passenger seat as Scully climbs over into the driver’s seat. When she's done adjusting the seat, she sees he had his head leaning on the window, and his eyes are slowly shutting. She reaches over to turn off the hazard lights, and begins to pull out from the side of the road, back into the highway.
“I still can't believe she killed herself,” Mulder says, and Scully feels her heart break.
“She was sick, Mulder, there wasn't much anyone could do for her.”
“I should have been there. I didn't even know she was sick. I guess there were a lot of things I didn't know about her. I don't think she knew I loved her. She probably died thinking that I resented her.”
“Do you?”
He looks over to Scully, unsure what she means. She steals a glance at him and answers his gaze with,
“Do you resent her?”
“No.”
“I think she knows.”
