Work Text:
The key turns in the lock as Mulder pushes his front door open, tossing the keys onto the sideboard when they immediately fall onto the floor. Shutting the door behind him, Mulder looks down at the keys crumpled on the floor and lets out a bone-weary sigh as he kicks them to the side, not bothering to pick them up. He flops down onto his couch and kicks his feet up, too tired and pissed off to bother changing out of his work clothes right now.
The whole thing had been a waste of time. What Diana had presented him with seemed legitimate but when they got to the warehouse all that had greeted him was another empty room. The photos he had been shown an hour and a half before of a full lab had been completely cleared out by the time he got there in person, almost as if somebody had found out he knew and word had been thrown to the conspirators. Mulder had looked to Diana, who stared back at him with that same shocked-frustrated that he was sure was on his own face, Scully’s words from their final exchange for the day echoing back to him.
Playing field agent with the enemy.
Mulder shook the thought from his mind. No, Diana didn’t know about this. How could she?
Still, they found no evidence that the warehouse had even been used in the last six hours never mind the last six months so after thoroughly investigating every crevice within the building (including the basement that was also devoid of anything) and listening to Diana repeatedly tell him they should get out of here before someone comes snooping, Mulder had packed up his frustration and walked back to the car. He’d dropped Diana off, thought about calling Scully only to chicken out, and drove back to the warehouse in the hopes somebody might return.
They never did.
Now it was 10pm. Now he was sat on the couch, in his work clothes, in complete silence. Not how his Friday nights had been going recently.
The phone glares at him. Mulder plays with the end of his tie while he once again debates calling Scully. He imagines calling only to be hung up on once she realised it was him, they had finished the day on such a sour note.
Why do you hate Diana so much, Scully? He silently asks the phone.
It had been assuming at first, watching her get all jealous about Diana but harmless jealous quickly grew into a hatred and distrust of the other woman and Mulder was slowly tiring of it. Diana could’ve closed the X-Files off to him, just as Spender had, but she still kept him updated on their cases, on their findings. He wasn’t playing at anything, he was a field agent- a good one at that- and their true enemies had stripped him of everything important to him, stuck him in a chair and told him to answer phone calls like some green-eyed fresh fish agent straight out of the academy.
Aren’t you frustrated at this, too, Scully.
She was. Mulder knew she was. She was smarter than even him and they had stuck her down here too, not even given her the option to go back to teaching this time. This is how her frustration manifested; irritation at their situation directed at the wrong people: him, Diana.
Mulder slumps forward and puts his face in his hands. He was tired, angry, unfulfilled in his job role, and the one person who understood all that, who he needed right now, he’d cast her aside for a lead that led them to nowhere.
He picks up the phone, dials Scully’s number, and puts it to his ear before he can talk himself out of it.
“Scully.”
He thought she was still asleep. The phone had rang, and rang, and rang until the very last second, just before he himself was about to hang up, and there her voice, calm, neutral, sounding at the end of the line.
“Scully, it’s me.”
He hears an intake of breath, hoping she doesn’t just hang up on him. She doesn’t. Instead she asks in a voice decidedly less calm and neutral, “What do you want?”
She was still mad at him, that much was clear.
“To talk to you,” Mulder says. He swallows, sighing. “To ask if I could see you?”
“You’re not with Diana?”
There was it again; that way she says Diana’s name, like it’s nothing more than vermin. Mulder fights back his feelings on it. He isn’t here to defend Diana’s honour tonight, fighting won’t make amends.
“No,” he answers. “The lead was a bust. I staked out the place after I dropped Diana home and nothing came of it. I’ve just got back.”
“By yourself?” The venom in her voice had abated slightly, leading the way to concern. Scully never liked it when he did stake outs by himself.
“Yeah. Not for long, three hours or so. Place was pretty deserted, nobody was coming back any time soon. Anyway, I was hoping I could come over, see you?” Lay my head on your lap and just not exist for a bit. “I know it’s late, and what I said earlier, but I’m pretty wired. Maybe we could watch a movie?”
There’s a long pause on the other end. Was she in bed after all, Mulder wonders? Had he woken her up and she’d fallen asleep with the phone next to her again. She did that a lot, when she couldn’t sleep and just wanted him to talk nonsense to her. It was one of his favourite things to do, to comfort her in such a way, it sometimes felt more intimate than being next to her in person.
“Okay,” she finally says and the word shocks him, Mulder didn’t think it would be that easy.
“I’ll be over in 30,” he says and hangs up. Maybe they could patch this up after all.
Mulder gets there a little after 10:30 and when Scully opens the door he sees she’s wearing pyjamas. His immediate response to be filled with guilt, realising that he had woken her up after all.
“I’m sorry, I’ll go,” he says, turning to leave but Scully’s hand on his arm stops him.
“Don’t,” she says gently. Mulder looks down at where her hand still rests against his forearm and Scully drops it. “I didn’t like how we ended today.” She steps to the side, widening her front door to allow him in. “Come in.”
They sit down on her couch, a small gap between them and when Mulder notices it, it feels like an ocean to him. They’re never this far apart but he doesn’t say or do anything about it. He pissed her off today and for what?
“If you had called me I’d have joined you on that stakeout,” she says.
Mulder smiles, shaking his head. “It was a waste of time, Scully.” Then he sighs, feeling his earlier frustration and weariness inside him. “The whole thing was. I think I knew that before we even got there.”
“So why even bother going?”
Mulder shrugs. “I guess I wanted something to be there. I’ve had nothing for weeks, done nothing for weeks and…”
“And Diana held out a carrot and took it away from you,” finishes Scully.
“No, I don’t think Diana knew there’d be nothing there.”
Scully has a look on her face that says she thinks otherwise but Mulder chooses not to rise to it. He doesn’t want to argue, he doesn’t want to talk about Diana, he can accept that this will forever be a sore spot between the two of them.
“And I realised that we had our thing on Fridays and I’d blown it off for nothing.” He looks towards her. “I’m sorry.”
Scully smiles a little and he takes it as his apology being accepted.
“I get it,” she says, shifting closer to him. “I hate in there, too. How I acted was a manifestation of that frustration. My thoughts on…Her haven't changed but I shouldn’t have taken that out on you, Mulder. You aren’t playing at anything, you are a field agent, we should both be in the field. I’m sorry, too.”
Mulder smiles back, grabbing for her hand and fidgeting with it. Scully doesn’t pull away, instead she lets out a groan. “I really don’t want to go to work on Monday.”
Mulder feels the same way. The thought of going back into that bullpen makes him want to run in the opposite direction but quitting would make too many people happy.
“Can I lay on you?” He asks. “I’ve had a crappy day and…”
“Sure.” Scully turns so she’s facing outwards and Mulder moves to lay his head in her lap. They fall quiet and Mulder closes his eyes, the only sound coming from the clock ticking away in Scully’s kitchen.
His mind slows down. It never stops completely but at least here, with Scully, everything feels less overwhelming.
“You think anyone will notice us missing on Monday?” He asks.
“Maybe. Why?”
“Feels like there’s more to this warehouse thing. I wanna go see.”
“You’re not going to ask Diana to come with you?” She asks it with no malice or retribution in her voice, just a simple question with a hint of surprise in it.
Mulder looks up at her. “No, I think Diana can have a night off. So?” Mulder hauls himself up, spinning to face her. “What do you say, G-woman?”
There’s a slight amused smile trying to appear on Scully’s face. “And what if they do notice us missing?”
Mulder shrugs. “What they gonna do, fire us?”
“Or make us clean the toilets.”
“Starting to sound more fun than answering phone calls.”
Scully laughs out loud at that. “Okay,” she agrees. “Let’s do it. I want to know what all this warehouse fuss is about.”