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Dana Scully looked at the address scribbled on a scrap of notebook paper in her hand and back up to the imposing edifice of the house in front of her. This could not be Fox Mulder’s house. It was large and grand and reeked of old money. Fox—no, Mulder, she corrected herself—always looked like he’d found his constantly rumpled clothes at the thrift store. She double and triple checked the address before taking a deep breath and approached the front door.
As she waited for the front door to be answered she glanced around the large wrap around the porch. There was a small table sitting around the corner with several chairs and a large swing at the opposite end.
“Hello,” said a kind voice, startling her out of her observations. “Can I help you?”
“Um, hi,” Dana said awkwardly, shuffling her books in her arms, “I’m supposed to be meeting Mul—um, Fox to work on our history project, but I’m not sure I’m in the right place.”
“Mr. Fox is upstairs,” the woman said pulling the door open more. “You may wait in the den while I fetch him.” She turned and gestured to a room at the end of the hall before bustling off up the stairs.
Dana stood rooted to the spot, not sure what to do with herself. She finally took a timid step into the den and saw a man sitting in an armchair, reading a newspaper and puffing away at a cigarette.
“Uh, hello,” she said, taking another hesitant step closer. “You must be Mr. Mulder? I’m Dana, I’m in Fox’s history class and I’m here to work on our project.”
“Hmm,” he grunted in response without lowering the paper. “Don’t stand there hovering, take a seat.”
Taken aback, she glanced around and chose a seat on a couch directly under a portrait of a much younger Mulder and a young girl she assumed to be his sister. She waited, perched primly on the edge of her seat, back ramrod straight, for another moment or so before Mulder slouched in and threw himself onto the couch slightly closer to her than she expected him to be.
“Where do you want to start?” he asked, rolling his head to look up at her from his reclined position.
She glanced over at Mr. Mulder who continued to ignore them. “Um, I brought some books that I got from the library. I thought we might start with his alleged discovery of the golden plates and work from there.”
“His alleged discovery?” Fox asked, turning more to face her. “Do I detect an air of skepticism from Good-Little-Catholic-Girl Dana Scully?”
Just as she was about to retort, a noise in the doorway drew her attention. A prim woman, dressed to the nines, was standing in the doorway. Her eyes took in Dana sitting closely to Mulder and his casual lounge beside her. Dana felt herself blush and couldn’t help the guilty feeling she suddenly experienced, though she wasn’t sure what it was she was supposed to be feeling guilty for.
“Fox,” she began, “are you going to introduce us to your…friend?”
“Sorry, Mom,” he mumbled as he sat up a little straighter. “Dana, this is my mother, Mom, this is Dana Scully, my partner for the history project I told you about.”
“It’s very nice to meet you, Mrs. Mulder,” Dana said, standing up and reaching out to shake Mrs. Mulder’s hand.
“Charmed,” Mrs. Mulder replied coldly, not taking her hand. “Fox, have you offered your guest any lunch?”
“Oh, I don’t need any lunch, thank you,” Dana put in. “I had lunch at home before I walked over.”
Mrs. Mulder regarded her icily again, before sniffing and turning away. As she left the room, Fox relaxed back into his lounging and Dana remained standing, an uneasy feeling settling into the pit of her stomach. She felt like she had somehow failed a pop quiz. She turned to look back at Fox who had pulled a sunflower seed from God knows where and was busy cracking it open with his teeth.
“Gloria will kill you if you make another mess with those shells, Fox,” Mr. Mulder said suddenly folding his newspaper and rising to his feet. He didn’t even wait for a response from Mulder before exiting the room.
With both Mr. and Mrs. Mulder gone, Dana felt herself begin to relax a bit. She was amazed at how Mulder’s entire countenance changed with or without his parents’ presence. They cracked open their books and started working, quipping back and forth the way they did at school. After some time, Mrs. Mulder returned to den and sat at a corner desk doing paperwork and ignoring them. Gloria—or so Dana assumed—came in and asked if either Mr. Fox or his young lady would like any snacks.
“No thank you, I’m fine,” Dana replied.
“She never eats anything,” Mrs. Mulder quipped suddenly. Dana’s head whipped around to look at her, her mouth opening and closing nervously, not knowing how to respond. She’d known Mrs. Mulder for all of forty-five minutes. How could she possibly expect to know if Dana did or did not eat?
Mulder chose this moment to get up and walk out of the room. Dana wasn’t sure if she was expected to follow or not, so she remained sitting on the couch, her library books spread around her and continued to take notes.
“Would you like to see some pictures of Fox when he was younger?” Mrs. Mulder asked suddenly.
“Uh, yeah, sure,” Dana replied. She was surprised by the sudden burst of hospitality and was slightly afraid of saying no to her another time.
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Yes.” Mrs. Mulder said again as she pulled several photo albums off a shelf. “‘Yeah’ is not a proper word.”
“Oh, um, right,” Dana mumbled as Mrs. Mulder settled herself on the couch next to her. She began flipping through the pages and providing a commentary on who was in the pictures. There were pictures of Mulder dressed like Mr. Spock on Halloween and at the beach with his little sister. As they reached the end of the first and second albums, Dana expected to see more of the same in the third. She was, therefore, surprised to see pictures of the moon landing in 1969. She scrambled in her mind to think of what the connection could be. She thought she vaguely remembered Mulder saying his father worked for government, but she couldn’t remember how.
“Does Mr. Mulder work for NASA?” Dana inquired politely.
“No,” Mrs. Mulder replied. “He works for the State Department. These photos are proof of how the moon landing was faked.”
“You…um…” Dana faltered. “You think the moon landing was faked?”
“I don’t think it,” she clarified. “I know it. See the angle of the shadows? That’s proof these pictures were taken on a sound stage.”
“Maybe they were taken after the fact for clarity?” Dana tried. She knew Mulder was obsessed with space and thought it would be odd that his mother would be so adamant that the moon landing was a government conspiracy.
“No.” Mrs. Mulder said tersely as Mulder ambled back into the room.
“Mom,” Mulder said as he turned on the television set in the corner, “Gloria asked me to tell you that Benjamin is on the phone.”
“Thank you, Fox,” she said as she returned the albums to the shelf and left the room.
“Having fun hanging with my mom, Scully?” Mulder asked as he flopped back down on the couch.
“I think she hates me,” Dana said, looking at her shoes.
“Yeah, she does,” he replied as he stretched out and started cracking open another sunflower seed.
“Why? What could I have possibly done?”
Mulder shrugged. “Who knows. She hates me too; she probably just hates you by proxy.”
“Your mother does not hate you, Mulder.” She twisted on the couch so that she could face him. “Why would you think that?”
“She blames me for Samantha,” he said, not meeting her eyes. “I was in charge, and I lost her. She’s hated me ever since.” He looked up and saw the concern in Dana’s eyes. “Hey, don’t worry about it,” he chuckled trying to lighten the mood, “she hates everyone.”
“That doesn't make it any better.” She resisted the urge to reach out and cup his cheek in her hand. He doesn’t like you like that, Dana, she thought to herself. She bit her lip and then decided to change the subject. “Who’s Benjamin?”
“Oh, my cousin,” Mulder replied. “Mom’s sister’s kid. He goes to UMass in Dartmouth, so he comes here when he has short breaks rather than going all the way home.”
“Oh…” she frowned, “he’s the one who answered the phone when I called last week?”
“Yeah.”
She was about to ask something else when Mrs. Mulder stuck her head back into the room and asked if Dana would like to stay for dinner. Still aware of her disdain and feeling the uncontrollable urge to make the woman like her, Dana energetically agreed. “That is,” she paused, “if it’s alright with my mother. May I use your phone?”
“Of course, there’s a phone in the hall,” Mrs. Mulder said as she waved in the general direction and walked off the other way.
Dana got up and went out to find the phone. Please say no, please say no, she repeated to herself as she listened to the phone ring.
“Scully residence,” Dana’s older sister said over the crackling line.
“Hey Missy, it’s Dana, is mom around?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder.
“Yeah,” Missy answered, and Dana listened to her sister calling over her shoulder. “What’s wrong? Is it too spooky over there and you need a ride home?”
“No,” she replied indignantly. “I wish you would stop calling him that. Actually, they invited me to stay for dinner, and I just wanted to check with Mom.”
“I’d rather have my teeth pulled,” Missy sighed. “Here’s Mom.”
Dana listened as Missy handed the phone over to their mother. “What’s up, Dana?” Maggie asked.
“Mrs. Mulder invited me to stay for dinner,” Dana explained.
“Okay honey,” Maggie replied, sounding distracted, “whatever you want. Oh, your bothers need me. Have fun!” Dana heard the click as the line went dead.
“Thanks,” she said quietly as she hung up the receiver. She wandered her way back to the den to find Mulder still lounging and eating sunflower seeds.
“Hey, Scully,” he said as she sat down next to him again, “you ever watch this show?”
“Mork and Mindy?” Dana asked, her eyebrows raised. “No, not really.”
“Oh, you should,” he smiled. “It’s great. Come on, let’s take a break for a while and watch it.”
“Haven’t we had enough of a break?” He shrugged and she rolled her eyes. “Where did you disappear to, anyway?”
“I dunno,” he shrugged again and cracked another sunflower seed. “Looks like we got plenty of work done.”
She leaned back into the couch and watched him for a minute. She supposed he was right: they had accomplished a decent amount, and they still had several weeks before their report was due. She knew that she really should insist that they keep working, but she also just wanted to enjoy his company. They were friends at school, sure, and she felt like she could inexplicitly trust him, but the real Mulder always seemed like such an enigma to her. She silently relished the chance to observe him away from the bustle of school. She would be lying if she said that she didn’t have a slight, okay huge, crush on him, but she was also quite sure that he only thought of her as his nerdy lab partner ever since they’d been assigned to work together in sophomore chemistry. He’d seemed to take offence to being assigned to work with the new girl, as if she would slow him down. She had soon impressed him with her skills, and they quickly became known as quite the dynamic duo. Despite being practically joined at the hip, Dana was learning that there was still a lot that she did not know about her best friend.
“Honey, I’m home!” a voice called from the front door and Mulder groaned. “Hey cuz,” the voice continued, much closer this time, “who’s this?”
“Hey, Ben,” Mulder grunted. “This is my buddy, Scully.”
“Scully?” Ben asked, a deep frown on his, admittedly handsome, features. “Oh, you’re the ‘friend’ who called last week. Foxy, I’m disappointed.” Dana felt herself bristle indignantly before he added with a wink: “you said she wasn’t pretty.”
“Don’t you have literally anywhere else to be?” Mulder asked, not looking away from the TV.
“Cranky, cranky,” Ben chuckled. “Aunt Teena won’t be very pleased with your manners.”
“She’s not pleased with me any way, why bother?”
Dana felt her heart ache for Mulder and again resisted the urge to reach out to him. Ben laughed to himself and left the room, leaving Dana and Mulder alone again. “You don’t really believe that, do you? That you displease your mom or that she hates you?”
He fixed her with an intense gaze and cracked open another sunflower seed. “You’ve met her. What makes you think that she doesn’t hate me? She’s acting nice right now because you’re here.”
Just as Dana had made up her mind to reach out to him, Gloria returned to the room. “Mr. Fox, Miss Dana, dinner is almost ready. Mrs. Teena wants you to come to the dining room.”
Mulder got up and headed for the door. Realizing that he wasn’t planning on waiting for her, Dana got up hastily and followed. They went across the hall into a formal dining room. Mr. and Mrs. Mulder were already seated at the head and foot of the table. Two chairs were on the side closest to where they stood, and another was across the table. They reached out for the two chairs, but Mrs. Mulder tutted loudly and Mulder rolled his eyes slightly before turning and walking around to the chair on the other side. Ben quickly swooped in from nowhere and pulled Dana’s chair out for her. Mrs. Mulder nodded approvingly at him and Mulder, still half standing, glared at his cousin.
Once they were all seated, Gloria began going round the table serving them. Dana, feeling rather awkward, reached for her water glass and took a sip, just to give herself something to do. She then folded her hands in her lap politely and waited for grace to be said. At the soft tinkling of silverware on plates, she glanced up to see Mulder watching her with an amused smile on his face. We don’t do that he mouthed at her. She mumbled her own quick grace and picked up her utensils and began to eat.
“So, Dana,” Ben began casually, “How did you and Foxy here meet?”
“Um,” she glanced across the table at Mulder, “we were assigned to be lab partners in Chemistry sophomore year. I was new at school and didn’t know anyone.”
“So, you still don’t know anyone?” asked Ben casually. Mulder glared, and Mrs. Mulder tutted again. “What? It’s not like he’s Mr. Popular.”
“Benjamin, play nice,” Mr. Mulder grunted from his place.
Dana felt her cheeks burn a little. The talk around the table moved to other topics and she remained silent, having nothing much to offer. They talked of other family members and upcoming summer plans at their beach house (because they needed a break from their home on an island?). She noticed that Mulder remained almost as silent as she was and was again struck by how quiet and subdued he seemed surrounded by his family. It seemed so unlike the Mulder she was used to.
As dinner drew to a close, Mr. Mulder pushed back his chair and cleared his throat. “Alright everyone, up,” he ordered.
“Dad, no,” Mulder began but he was cut off by Ben.
“Oh, come on, Foxy, it’s tradition.”
“You’re not seriously going to make her play, are you?” Mulder implored again, but his pleas were ignored. Confused, and still trying to ingratiate herself with Mulder’s mother, Dana rose from the table and began to follow everyone else out of the room. She was almost to the door when Mulder caught her arm.
“You don’t have to do this,” he whispered in her ear.
“I don’t even know what this is,” she replied stubbornly.
“It’s just a stupid—”
“Fox!” Ben poked his head back into the dining room, “we’re all waiting for the two of you…unless you’d rather be alone…”
“No, it’s not like that,” Mulder scrubbed his face with his hand, “we’re coming.” He glanced back to Dana, “don’t say I didn’t try to save you.”
Pushing down the slight hurt of Mulder so quickly denying that he would want to be alone with her, she followed along in his wake to the back yard where Mr. and Mrs. Mulder and Ben stood selecting croquet mallets. Dana looked to Mulder with her eyebrows raised but he was reluctantly selecting his own mallet.
“Have you ever played croquet, Dana?” Ben asked. His tone sounded nice, but Dana still felt herself bristle just a bit.
“Yes,” she replied cooly. “Our neighbor in San Diego loved it and Melissa and I used to play it with her all the time.”
“Who’s Melissa?” Ben wagged his eyebrows at her.
“Melissa is her sister,” Mulder answered before she got the chance. “She’s out of your league so don’t even think about it.”
“Tetchy, tetchy,” Ben tutted, “I was only trying to be nice.”
Mr. Mulder cleared his throat loudly. Dana was beginning to get the idea that Mr. and Mrs. Mulder ruled their home by fear of disapproval and that those tuts and cleared throats had years of baggage attached to them.
Ben shrugged, Mulder glared, and Dana selected a mallet. The game began. Dana hung back and tried to tamp down her instinct to be super competitive in her play style. This technique wasn’t proving to be particularly effective as the Mulders appeared to take the game very seriously. All that went out the window when her ball rolled to stop and landed square against Ben’s. They were playing without boundaries and seemed to take great pleasure from knocking each other’s balls into the outer reaches of the back yard. Ben had made one too many disparaging comments at Mulder’s expense and Dana decided to give him a dose of his own medicine. She calmly walked over, placed her foot on her ball, pulled back, and sent Ben’s ball flying into the undergrowth. He stood there watching with his mouth hanging open.
“Wow, Scully,” Mulder whispered in her ear after magically appearing at her side. “I didn’t know you had that in you.”
“I told you I know how to play,” she smiled up at him. He held her eyes for a moment and just as she thought maybe, just maybe, he might lean a little closer, there was another loud tut from Mrs. Mulder. Mulder straightened and backed away as Scully shook her head and squared her shoulders to take her second bonus shot. She sent the ball rolling smoothly through the next wicket and the game continued, the moment lost forever.
Forty minutes later, the game was finally finished. “Would you care for some mille-feuille, Dana?” Mrs. Mulder asked politely. Dana looked to Mulder but he was busy putting his mallet back on the rack and ignoring her again.
“I’d love some, Aunt Teena,” Ben said, throwing his arm casually around Dana’s shoulders. “Gloria’s mille-feuille is to die for,” he added as an aside to her.
“I’ll have some as well,” Mr. Mulder said as he lit a fresh cigarette.
Again, Dana looked to Mulder, but he was still preoccupied with the croquet mallets.
“Um, yes please,” Dana finally acquiesced timidly.
“Wonderful,” Mrs. Mulder said. “I’ll go have Gloria get it ready.”
They all filed back inside to the den, Dana following in their wake. Mulder began switching through the channels until he found some Saturday night movie playing on tv. “Far out!” he exclaimed to himself before settling on the couch in his relaxed position from earlier. Dana looked around and noticed that both Mr. and Mrs. Mulder had resumed their previous positions as well while Ben was sitting in another armchair. She sighed and sat back on the couch next to Mulder.
“What are they playing this week?”
“Looks like a Godzilla-type movie,” he said, his eyes fixed on the screen as scientists inspected a frozen piece of a giant lizard’s tail. Scully settled back into the couch next to him wondering how long it would be before the dessert was ready. She had expected it to be served relatively quickly but as the movie played on, she realized it had been at least half an hour since it was offered to her.
By the time Gloria presented her with a plate of mille-feuille the army was chasing a giant monster as it spit acid slime and gobbled up farmers all across the Danish countryside. She ate her dessert and continued watching the movie, reluctant to admit that she was fully captivated by it.
When the movie finally ended, Dana looked up at the clock and realized it was almost 10 pm. “Oh,” she exclaimed, sitting up. “It’s almost my curfew; I’d better be getting home.” She stooped down to gather her books. She was to the door of the den when she heard Mr. Mulder clear his throat.
“Fox,” he said, not looking up from his paper.
“Oh right,” Mulder said standing up. “I’ll walk you home.”
“You don’t need to do that,” she protested.
“It’s no trouble,” he put his hand on the small of her back and led to the front door. He pulled his jacket on and the two of them stepped outside. “Here, let me take some of those,” he added, gesturing to her books.
“It’s really not necessary,” she added, biting her lip. They fell into step beside each other silently. They were about halfway to her house before they spoke again. “So…your family…”
“They’re something, aren’t they?” He pulled some more sunflower seeds out of his pocket and began cracking them open.
“You’re so different when you’re around them,” she said quietly, her eyes trained on the ground.
“Yeah, well, I suppose that happens when I spend as much time as possible trying to stay out of their way.” Dana chanced a glance at him and saw him looking up into the sky. “I was never the favorite—it was always Samantha—and then she disappeared. They both blame me. They’re just counting down the days until I go off to college so they can get a divorce.”
“You don’t really believe that do you?” She watched him carefully.
“They’re not very shy about it. They barely talk to each other; they barely talk to me. I can’t wait to leave. It’s part of why I’m going to England next year.”
“You’re…going to England?” She stopped walking and stared at him.
“Yeah,” he shrugged. “I got into Oxford. No one will miss me.”
“Mulder,” she bit her lip, “I’ll miss you.”
“You?” He turned back to look at her.
“Of course I will,” she took a step closer to him. “Mulder, you’re my best friend.”
“No, I’m not,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
“Yes, Mulder, you are.” She shifted her books in her arms. “I don’t care if you don’t think of me as your best friend, but you’re definitely mine.”
“I do think of you as my best friend,” he took a step closer to her, closing the gap between them. “I had no idea you felt that way about me. You can do so much better than ‘Spooky Mulder.’”
“I don’t agree with that,” she whispered. He reached out and gently cupped her cheek, his thumb brushing against her. Her breath hitched and it felt to her like time had stopped. She closed her eyes and ever so gently, he pressed his lips to hers. She remained stock-still, afraid to move in case she was dreaming. She felt his tongue swipe across her bottom lip and suddenly she panicked. She pulled way abruptly.
“I’m close enough to my house,” she said, her voice shaking. “I can make it on my own from here.” She began to back away.
“Scully,” he said, trying to grab her hand, but she pushed past him roughly.
“I’ll see you Monday,” she called over her shoulder as she picked up her pace.
“Scully, wait!” he called after her, but she had already rounded the corner and was out of sight.
Several minutes later she pushed open her front door. Her parents were in the living room watching the late evening news.
“Did you have a nice time, sweetie?” her mother asked.
“Yeah, it was great,” she called over her shoulder as she mounted the stairs.
She was almost to her room when she heard the phone ring in the hall. “Who could possibly be calling this late?” her father grumbled as he got to his feet to answer the phone.
A moment later, her mother’s head popped round her bedroom door. “Dana, Fox is on the phone for you.”
“I'm tired,” she said quickly, “I don’t want to talk right now.”
“Okay sweetie, I’ll tell him.” She withdrew her head from the room.
“You don’t want to talk to Fox?” Missy said with a quirk of her eyebrows. “What did he do?”
“He didn’t do anything,” Dana said, burying her face into the pillow.
“Forgive me if I think you’re full of shit, Danes,” Missy chuckled. “I can see you blushing from here.”
“He didn’t do anything!” she said again, with a little more force this time. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay.” Missy came and sat on the edge of Dana’s bed and rubbed her back gently. “Just know I’m here if you change your mind.”
“He kissed me,” Dana moaned into her pillow.
“He what?” Missy gasped.
“He kissed me.” She rolled her head to the side so Missy could hear her better. “He was walking me home and we were talking, and we stopped for some reason and then he kissed me.”
“Dana! That’s great!” Missy brushed Dana’s hair away from her face. “You’ve only wanted him to do it since you met him.”
“I panicked and ran away,” she sobbed.
“Oh, Danes,” Missy frowned. “It’s okay. I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think.”
“What if he never tries again?” Dana sat up and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“Then you kiss him,” Missy said plainly. “It’s no big deal.”
“Maybe for you.”
“Look,” Missy grabbed Dana’s shoulders and squared them to her, “you’ve liked him forever, and he obviously likes you too. If you don’t want to talk to him about it, just walk up to him and plant one on him. Trust me, he won’t argue with that.”
“Are you sure?” Dana asked, biting her lip.
“Of course I’m sure. Would I ever lead you astray?” Missy said.
“Yes.”
Missy rolled her eyes. “Would I lead you astray on something as important as this?”
“I suppose not,” Dana sniffed.
“Now, go, wash your face, brush your teeth and get a good night’s sleep. Then, on Monday, make sure you look extra cute, and walk up to him and plant a big one on him.” She sat back and ruffled Dana’s hair.
“I…I think I can do that,” Dana wiped her nose and looked up at her older sister. “If you’re absolutely sure.”
“I am 100%, cross my heart, sure,” Missy nodded solemnly. She gave Dana one last significant look then got up and crossed the room to her own bed.
Dana got herself ready for bed and settled down under the covers. She replayed the entire day over and over to herself. Maybe Missy was right. He had kissed her, but he had also practically ignored her half the day. She felt both miles away from him and at the same time closer to him than she ever had. She had seen into his life in a way that she knew few others had and yet he had also kept up some sort on insurmountable wall between them.
She finally rolled over onto her side and flicked off the light. Overthinking wouldn’t do her any good. And so, as she began to drift off to sleep, she made up her mind to take Missy’s advice the next time she saw him.