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“Ow,” Mulder says. “Jesus fucking Christ. Ow.”
Scully raises her head, one hand on the wall by the door to steady herself as she takes her shoes off. “You okay?”
He’s standing by the couch, fists pressed against the small of his back. With a groan, he arches his body backwards, eyes squeezed closed. “Yeah.” He says. “No. Actually, no, I’m not.”
She leaves her shoes where they are, drops her jacket on the floor and hurries over to him to touch her hands to his back, carefully feeling for injury. “What’s wrong? Did you hurt yourself?”
He shakes his head slowly, then turns, sighs, and lowers his eyes. “We chased the guy for three blocks, Scully. Three blocks.”
“And we caught him,” she says. “Well, you caught him. Since, as you pointed out on the way back home, my short little legs make it difficult to chase criminals on foot.”
“You know I was joking, right?” He winces. “I’m sorry.”
She smiles. “I know. And as I pointed out, you have no choice but to run after them, since you look about as threatening as a teddy bear and they won’t stop just because you ask them to.”
“Which is also not true, I hope?” he asks.
“No, no, you look very menacing and dangerous,” she tells him with a laugh, ruffling his hair. “I’m sure they’re all trembling in fear before you. You weren’t wrong about being faster though.”
His mouth is set in a straight line, his face impassive. He’s upset and trying to hide it. “How much longer, though?”
She furrows her brows. “How much longer are you gonna be faster than me?”
“No. How much longer will I be able to chase criminals on foot?”
“What do you mean?” She takes in his sad eyes, the slump of his shoulders. “You run all the time.”
“Yeah, but...” He pauses, bites his lip, and his voice is small and heavy as he adds, “I’m old, Scully. I’m old.”
“Oh, Mulder.” Her hands find his and she squeezes them. “What brought this on?”
He shrugs. “Three blocks, Scully. And I really had to push myself to keep up, and I think I pulled a muscle in my back when I tackled the guy. Who almost got free, by the way. I could barely restrain him until you showed up.”
“Well.” She tilts her head at him. “You do realize that he was twenty-one and pumped so full of steroids he was more drug than human? You would probably have had a hard time keeping up with him twenty years ago.”
“My lungs were burning. And my knees hurt.”
Affection swells in her chest. “If it makes you feel any better,” she says. “My lungs were on fire too once I caught up to you. And my legs still feel like jelly. You’re not the only one who’s getting old here.”
He seems to think about it. “No,” he says at last. “I’m sorry. That doesn’t make me feel any better.”
She hums softly. “Okay. What will make you feel better, then?”
“I don’t know.” He lets go of her hands and lifts his arms in a helpless gesture. “Can you make me twenty years younger? You’re a medical doctor. There must be a cure. Some sort of treatment.”
“Oh, God no,” she says. “I’m too old to put up with a younger you.”
“What?”
“I feel exhausted just thinking about it.”
His mouth falls open at her words. “Hey!”
“Sorry.” She shrugs. “But I like my Mulder to like afternoon naps. You used to never sleep at all. And believe it or not, calling me at 2 a.m. to meet you at the airport in five minutes was never as cute as you may have thought it was.”
“But…” He waves his hands at himself. “I’m boring now. I got boring.”
She gasps. “You take that back! You haven’t been boring for a single day since I’ve known you!”
He shakes his head firmly. “We used to be spontaneous! Remember when we moved in here, and we spent half the night stargazing on the roof, and then made love on every piece of furniture in this house? I couldn’t even get up onto the roof now, Scully! And I fell asleep after our date night last week before I could even get you naked.”
That makes her laugh. “You climbed a mesh wire fence yesterday. I think you could absolutely get up onto the roof. And as for the other night, I don’t even remember you falling asleep on me, since I was already out like a light myself.”
“You were?” He frowns.
She nods. “The last thing I remember is you unbuttoning my shirt.”
“Yeah.” He clears his throat. “I woke up half an hour later with my head on your hip. You kicked me in your sleep.”
“I have no memory of that.”
He sighs deeply. “Be that as it may, you always needed more sleep than me.”
She gives him a long look. “Mulder, why does any of this even matter?”
“It matters because…” He trails off.
“So our knees hurt,” she says. “And you pulled something in your back when you tackled someone after pursuing him for three blocks. We’ll sit down for a while and then have a nice hot bath, and you’ll tell me if anything else hurts so I can take care of it, okay?”
“What about you?” he asks.
“What about me?”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m exhausted,” she says. “All I want is a cup of coffee and to spend the evening on the couch with you. You may have noticed that I’m not as young as I was either.” She smiles at him. “Does it bother you? That I’m not as fast anymore? And that I don’t look the way I did when you met me?”
“Why would that bother me?” he asks. “You’re beautiful. You always will be.”
“So are you.” She tugs at his hand and pulls him over to the couch, because honestly, her feet are killing her. “Can we please sit down for the rest of this conversation? It’s been a really long day.”
“It has been,” he agrees, and holds his arms open once they’re settled so she can snuggle up against his side. “It’s been a really, really long day.”
“Mulder,” she says. “Are you really upset about this?”
“I would very much like my back to not hurt.”
“Yeah, I get that.” She rests her head on his shoulder and wraps her arms around his middle. “I would like to be able to run in heels like I used to. But it’s not all bad, is it? Getting older.”
“It’s not?”
“Of course not.” She squeezes him tight. “Weren’t you getting a little tired too of always running? Of never taking a break? Because I’m gonna be honest with you. I was.”
“You were?”
“Yeah. I was.” She sighs. “I don’t know, Mulder. I don’t think slowing down a little is the worst thing in the world. And we still have our work. We’re just…”
“What?”
“Smarter about it,” she says. “Don’t you think?”
“Older and wiser?” There’s a smile in his voice. It’s good to hear.
“I mean, yes.” She shrugs. “What we have lost in speed, we have gained in experience.”
“And in creaky joints.”
“And in patience.”
“And in lack of stamina.”
She draws back to grin at him. “Your stamina is perfectly fine. I certainly have no complaints when it comes to that.”
“I wasn’t talking about—” He grins back at her. “Okay, maybe I was.”
“You’ve never disappointed me in that department,” she promises. “Or in any other, for that matter.”
He nods slowly, then grimaces. “Scully?”
“Yes?”
“I think you’re leaning right against a bruise on my arm.”
“Oh. Sorry.” She sits up and cups his face in one hand. “Before you can blame your age on that too, you remember that you were constantly covered in bruises and scratches when you were younger, right? If hospitals made loyalty cards, you’d have had so many stamps in a year you’d have won a free vacation to a self-care retreat. I’m surprised they didn’t name a hospital wing after you.”
“Professional hazard.”
She rolls her eyes at him. “Jumping onto moving trains and being hit by cars while chasing suspects across a busy street was never exactly in your job description.”
“I was dedicated.”
“You still are.”
“Thank you,” he says.
“For what?”
“For loving me despite my creaky joints.”
“Well,” she says. “Thanks for loving me despite mine.”
“Always,” he promises, and she knows he means it.
“Maybe we’ve outgrown some of those old adventures,” she says. “But we’ll have different ones. We’ll make new memories.”
He pulls her close, rests his head on top of hers, and she feels his lips against her hair as he says, “I like the sound of that.”
“So do I.” She leans back and up, careful of his bruised arm, and kisses him.
Her own body is protesting the long day on her feet and the chase and the uncomfortable chair in the interrogation room. But when Mulder pulls her close and kisses her back and murmurs promises for later against her lips, she doesn’t care about any of that. And she is looking forward to that nice hot bath later. With him. That’s all the excitement she needs tonight.