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It was tougher than he thought. The expectation to walk in and immediately start making organized piles: trash, donate, sell was hardly met.
He’d get lost in the past, core memories reeling in his brain. What should have taken a hour to clean out a pantry took three hours. Who knew that hidden knick knacks would cause a 45 minute spiral?
He tried to see the therapy in it. He kept hoping that he’d feel lighter. But the feeling never came. At least not while performing the task itself.
He did feel it looking at her.
After coming back from California, he sat Scully down, and while holding onto her hands tightly he’d asked her to come with him. To keep him sane. To keep him grounded. And, of course, seeing her in a bathing suit wouldn’t hurt.
She smiled wide enough to show her gums. With a soft brush of her fingers against his cheek, he knew he did good by asking her to accompany him.
And like in their partnership, she did most of the work. While he was stuck in his head, she basically had the living room stripped and organized.
He joins her with a box marked donate and plops into an armchair marked to sell. He puffs out his cheeks and lets out air through pursed lips.
Just as he’s about to scrub his fingers through his shorn hair, he’s plummeted with a pillow.
He looks up at his partner who’s holding the soft weapon and wearing a devilish grin.
He smiles conspiratorially and grabs at the pillow behind his back.
A pillow war commences. Stuffed cotton strikes hips, shoulders, chest, knees—faces are off limits. Breathless laughter is heard between swoops and swipes.
One hard swing takes Mulder out at the knees and he crumbles to the ground.
“Oh no, old man, are you okay?!” Scully lowers her defense and walks over to Mulder to make sure he isn’t hurt.
Having brothers she should have known his feigning injury was a tactic.
“Old man!?”
He jumps up, gathers her into his arms, and spins her around.
Her arms wrap tight around his neck, her feet lifting into the air as she giggled unabashedly.
He stops, dragging her body down the front of his until her feet reach the ground.
He reaches up to take her face between his hands and brings her in for a kiss. Scully holds his wrists within her tiny hands, and returns his passionate exchange.
An insurmountable time goes by when he finally pulls away slowly.
“If I didn’t tell you already, thank you. Thank you for coming up here with me. I don’t think I’d be able to do this without you.” His thumbs caress her cheekbones as he sees her eyes water.
“Thank you for asking me. Nowhere else I’d rather be.” She squeezes his wrists. “Now let’s get back to work. The water is calling my name.” She walks over to tape up a box.
Mulder’s eyebrows raise to his hairline. “You actually brought a bathing suit?”
“No.”
She looks over her shoulder at him waiting for her response to register. Once it lands, she picks up the box and moves it to the outdoor porch.
His eyes follow after her, jaw dropped.
“Have mercy” he whispers into an empty room.
He suddenly has renewed energy to finish the kitchen. But whatever else needed to be done, could wait until tomorrow.