Chapter Text
April 6, 2000, 1:03 PM
“Come on Mulder, it’s not even a case.” Said Scully dropping the hazy photo’s that depicted the so-called Yeti of Jasper in Canada onto the desk. “It’s a blurry photo someone took to drum up business.”
Mulder looked up from the report he had been reading. He was sitting at his desk, Scully sat across from him wearing a frustrated expression. “Yeah, but have you ever gone skiing in Canada Scully?” He asked seriously.
She stared back at him, making it clear his joke was not funny. His face broke into that goofy half smile that she loved seeing and she couldn’t help but smile back at him. “We are not spending company money to go on vacation.” She said.
She could understand his boredom, they hadn’t had a case in weeks. Unless you count the unsubstantiated vampire attacks on the cattle of Louisiana. Which had turned out to be a creative farmer trying to thin the herd of his competitors. Scully had spent a whole weekend slogging through mud and cow pies on that one. Her suit was still at the dry cleaners as they tried to get the dirt out of it, that had been two weeks ago.
Since then work had been dull. They had arrested the farmer for wilful damage to property, so at least they weren’t copping any flak from Skinner and the other heads for misuse of funds. “You’re no fun, besides you would look cute in a snow bunny’s outfit.” He flirted.
“Mulder.” She admonished, going slightly pink. She looked around the office pointing out with her eyes that this was not the place for that kind of talk.
Mulder paled, he had forgotten himself for a moment. They had been spending so much time together outside of work lately that he had felt like he was at home flirting over breakfast. Charlie had some big divorce case at the moment, lots of money, some of it hidden. Which meant he had been in the office until very late going over transaction histories and depositions trying to sort out what his client was entitled to. Scully had been visiting him after work for dinner at least four times a week, although she always went home before midnight.
Thankfully just then the phone rang.
“Mulder.” He said picking it up.
Scully watched as his eyes lit up. We must have a case she thought, reaching over and putting the paperwork and photos from the Yeti sighting back in the folder. She got up and moved over to the filing cabinet.
“Great, can you send me the report?” Asked Mulder.
He hung up and turned to face her. “Fancy a trip to Hollywood?”
“What, they had Yeti reports there too?” She joked.
He smiled, he loved how much more relaxed she was now. It was like the weight of all of those walls was disappearing with every layer he broke through. “No, but it does sound interesting.”
She put the file back in the cabinet. “What’s it about?” she asked leaning against the closing draw.
“If I told you that it would spoil the surprise.” He said jumping out of his chair and heading for the door. “You’d better go home and pack I’ll pick you up in an hour.” He called on his way out.
She sighed, it was so typical of him to run out only telling half the story. Hollywood, she thought. It could be anything. She headed for the door, grabbing her coat on the way out. She didn’t bother with the lights, Mulder would be back to grab his things before he left.
She was stopped at the metal detectors by the guard. “Agent Scully, leaving already?” He asked.
“Yeah, caught a case.” She replied smiling.
“Oh, where are you off to this time? More cow pies?”
She laughed. “Thankfully no, California. Hopefully, it will be full of sunshine and free of mud.”
The Guard nodded. “Half your luck, you two have fun.”
“Thanks, Frank, say Hi to Amy and Debbie for me.” She said heading for her car.
“Will do!” The Guard called in response.
****
Thankfully traffic was light and Scully made it home in record time. She walked into her apartment tossing her keys on the side table and her coat on the couch. She looked around her living room, the place looked so much warmer since Charlie had moved his things in. He had added touches to everything, from the rug on the floor which covered the stain of bad memories to the potted plants she now had on the table behind the couch.
She walked over to the hall closet where she kept her suitcases and was slightly annoyed to find that Charlie had moved them up onto the shelf to make room for some of his things. If she wasn’t so vertically challenged it wouldn’t be a problem, but as it was, she would have to get up on her toes to reach them. She contemplated grabbing a chair from the dining room, before deciding she couldn’t take the indignity, the shelf wasn’t that high. She reached her hand up as high as it would go, and after pointing her toes, she was able to reach the handle. She gave it a tug and to her surprise, the whole lot came crashing down on top of her. She fell into a heap on the floor, knocking the wind out of herself as she went.
Charlie came bursting out of his room with a baseball bat held above his head. He looked down to see his tiny sister lying on the floor with a suitcase on her chest and a panicked look on her face. It took him no time at all to work out what must have happened, and then he laughed. He laughed so hard that he dropped the bat and doubled over.
Scully went bright red and could feel the rage building inside. She pushed the suitcase off and stood up. “What’s so funny?” She asked.
Charlie looked at Scully’s face, he could see how mad she was, but that only made it funnier. He burst into new roars of laughter.
“It’s not funny, this wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t moved them in the first place! What are you even doing here? Shouldn’t you be at work?” She shouted at him.
“I have a late meeting.” He said between fits. “So I thought I would take the opportunity to catch up on some sleep. I was just about to get ready when I heard you.”
Scully shook her head at him, she felt angry and embarrassed. She grabbed one of the cases and stormed into her room, slamming the door behind her. She could still hear his laughter echoing down the hallway.
She scowled and started throwing her things into the case. She knew she would regret not folding her things later when they came out all creased, but right now she couldn’t care less. She grabbed out a light coat, hoping it wouldn’t be too cool there. It was spring after all, but the way they travel, you have to be prepared for anything.
She walked into the bathroom, gathered her toiletries, and quickly left. She still didn’t like that room. Charlie had no such problem, and in fact, he loved that she had shortened her bathroom time down. He could now take a twenty-minute shower and know that there would still be hot water.
She threw the toiletries bag into the suitcase remembering to grab her makeup bag from the dresser, she had been doing her makeup in the mirror in her bedroom since the attack. After she finished packing her case she sat down on the bed and sighed. She was not looking forward to the hotel room stay that would accompany this trip. The nightmare that had plagued her since the attack had only gotten worse, she had woken Charlie every night she had been home with her screams and cries. So far, Mulder hadn’t heard her. She was lucky with their last case that the small motel that they had stayed in didn’t have two adjoining rooms. She had ended up on one end of the strip of rooms, Mulder on the other.
She should probably go and apologise to Charlie, he had been working so hard lately, coming home in the early hours of the morning to pass out in his room, only to be awoken by her nonsense. She got up from the bed and walked over to his door. He opened it moments after her knock. He was half dressed for work, dress shirt unbuttoned and only one cuff link on. “Hey Dane, what’s up?” He asked moving back to his dresser to look for the other link.
“I wanted to apologise for shouting at you earlier, it wasn’t fair. You have every right to move things around here, you live here too.” She said looking down.
“Actually about that, I’ve been looking at some real estate lately.”
Scully looked up horrified, she wasn’t ready for him to leave. She opened her mouth to argue but he cut her off.
“Don’t panic, I’m not going yet. I’m just seeing what my options are. The money from Jason just landed in my account the other day and it would make a nice deposit for a house.” He reassured.
“Charlie, I’m sorry. I know you haven’t been getting much sleep lately and that’s my fault. But I just got you back, I don’t want to lose you.” How was she supposed to get used to living on her own again? He hadn’t been here for long, but she couldn’t imagine not having him around every day to tease her about her clothes and watch crappy old movies with.
“Dana, you haven’t done anything wrong. Honestly, I stayed for so long because of you. But I need to find out if I can live on my own. I never have, I went straight from college to living with Jase. I’m thirty-three years old and I’ve never been alone. Not to mention I know you haven’t returned any of mom’s calls since I moved here.”
She wanted to argue with him, but he was right. She had been avoiding their mother ever since he got here. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see her mom, she just felt like whatever move she made, she was betraying someone. She had promised Charlie that she wouldn’t tell Mom that he was here, but she couldn’t look into her mother’s eyes and lie to her.
“She’s your mother Dana, you need to talk to her. She loves you.”
Scully looked into her brother's eyes. It amazed her that despite everything that had gone on between the two of them, he still wanted Scully to keep her relationship with their Mom. “I know, I’ll call her when we get back from this case.”
“And I promise I won’t move out without telling you.” Joked Charlie.
There was a knock on the front door. “That’s not funny.” Said Scully before walking over to let Mulder in.
“You ready?” He asked as he stepped into the living room.
“Yeah, I just got to grab my case.” She replied walking off the bedroom to collect her things.
“Hey Charlie, how’s things?” Asked Mulder as the taller Scully sibling walked out of his room.
“Good man, how are you?” Replied Charlie.
Mulder nodded. “Good.” They stood there awkwardly for a moment until Scully came out of her room.
“Ready.” She said and walked to the door. She stopped on the way to give her brother a hug. “See you when I get back.”
“Later squirt.” He replied.
They were almost out the door when Charlie called out for Mulder. He turned to Scully. “Meet you at the car.” He said handing her the keys before walking back to the doorway that Charlie was standing in. “What’s up?” He asked the man.
Charlie waited until Scully had turned the corner before speaking. “Listen, Dana won’t want me to tell you this. But I thought you should know, she’s been having terrible night terrors since her attack. I don’t want you to worry if she starts screaming in her sleep. Just wake her up and remind her where she is, she’ll calm down and go back to sleep. Half the time she doesn’t even remember that I woke her.”
Mulder nodded, he would have to keep a closer eye on her. He had no idea that it was still affecting her. “Thanks, man.” He said holding out his hand for Charlie to shake it. “I will take care of her.”
“I know you will.” Replied the tall redhead.