Going to Kansas City
AN: A bit of me using Mulder and Scully to vent about one of my pet peeves…the location of Kansas City, Missouri, a city I love and lived close to for many, many years as a teenager. It is where my love of X-files was born in college, when I was at William Jewell in Liberty. As many times as I’ve flown in, this drive is very familiar to me.
Spring was giving way to a sticky, thick heat that blanketed the rolling prairie lands, sucking the silvery dew off the tender green grass and turning it into a sauna. Scully balked as they stepped up to their rental car outside of Kansas City International Airport and eyed the bright shell of blue sky above them disgruntled.
“Why does Kansas have to be so frickin’ hot?” Already her neatly coiffed hair had melted to the sides of her face, and all she wanted was to be inside the car with all the air vents blasting as hard as they could.
“Missouri,” Mulder replied, unlocking their vehicle allowing her to slip inside the baking interior.
“What?” She blinked, still preoccupied with why he hadn’t gotten the keys in the ignition yet and turned on the blessed air conditioner.
“We aren’t in Kansas, Toto, we are in Missouri. Kansas is about thirty minutes that way.” He pointed in a vague direction beyond their car that could be any direction as far as Scully was concerned. She assumed he thought it meant west.
“Kansas, Missouri, I don’t care, it’s pissin’ hot. Turn on the air.”
“Yes ma’am.” Mulder did as she asked, turning the engine over as he flipped on vents and pointed them in Scully’s face. Cool air began to pour out onto her sticky face, slowly beginning to unglue her suit jacket from her clammy skin.
“Better,” he murmured somewhere near her ear? She grinned, cutting a sideways mock-glare at him.
“We are on a case,” she reminded him primly. Their agreed rule, all extra-curricular activities would take a backseat to their work. That was the way it had to be for now. It didn’t mean that Mulder didn’t try his best to bend the rules when he thought he could get away with it.
“I was simply looking after your temperature…you were the one who was hot and all.”
He uttered “hot” with that double-entendre that made her roll her eyes even as she smiled. “Kansas, Missouri, obviously you still don’t know how to give a good pick up line.”
“Worked with you, didn’t it?” A dark eyebrow quirked up as he grinned, unashamedly, pulling the car out of the spot it was parked in. Returning to their previous topic of conversation, he nodded to a sign in the distance that read “Welcome to Kansas City, Missouri.”
“Despite popular misconception, the main part of the city of Kansas City is in fact in Missouri. It was named for the fact it sat on the Kansas River where it feeds into the Missouri River.”
Scully sighed, realizing she was going to get a geography lesson whether she liked it or not. “Does it really matter what side of the state line we are on?”
“I suppose it does to Betty Templeton. She’s moved to seventeen of them in the last two years.”
Scully nodded, recalling the details of the case. Two agents, investigating potential hate crimes against a couple of Mormon kids out on their missionary work, nearly kill each other on Betty Templeton’s doorstep. “And a string of similar incidents across every state. So if we are going with my doppelganger theory…”
“Your doppelganger theory,” he protested mildly.’
“Yes, mine,” she teased back, punching him lightly in the shoulder. “Doppelgangers are sources of dark, angry energy. There must be then a doppelganger of Betty Templeton around here somewhere.”
“Maybe she’s on the Kansas side,” Mulder quipped.
“Or vice versa,” Scully replied, glancing at the tracks of newly built homes over what had been, until recently, cow fields. Had any of this been here the first time they flew in? That had been years ago. It was strange to think, seven years, such a very long time.
“Seven years is a while to work together,” Scully mused, thinking of the two wounded agents laid up in the hospital.
“We’ve done all right?” There was a hint of speculative worry in Mulder’s voice, there despite the turn in their relationship of late. Did he really have any doubt? Somehow, Scully found that hopelessly endearing.
“We are perfect,” she assured him, patting a comforting hand against his right thigh. “I just am thinking of those two agents. Seven years together, you and I know better than anyone, you develop a bond. What in the world could break it so completely that you nearly kill the person you work with?”
“The nature of the doppelganger is that it feeds into its twin’s dark desires. Perhaps Betty Templeton’s dark desires are so powerful that they bleed onto everyone else in the general vicinity. And suddenly, all those petty conflicts, all those tiny slights, the things that drove you crazy over the years, they become blindingly annoying, to the point of making you want to kill someone.”
“Betty Templeton is thus working as a hate magnet. But for that to work, her doppelganger would have to be close by.”
“Won’t know until we talk to her, now will we?”
Somehow, Scully wasn’t so sure she wanted to. “I don’t know, Mulder. If two, seasoned veterans of the FBI nearly murder each other on the street, it makes me worry about getting anywhere near her.”
“Oh, come on,” Mulder chided, glancing at her with dubious amusement. “Scully, the great skeptic, is worried about a cute little red-head who wears bows in her hair.”
“Being a cute, little red-head, yes. We are mean.” She had seen the list of the two agents injuries. “Those two were partners for seven years, Mulder. How can you turn on someone like that?”
“Not everyone is us, Scully.”
“And that’s my point. If it could happen to them, what would happen to us?” She hated admitting it out loud, because it sounded so silly and foolish when she did. “I mean, you said it yourself, those things that drive you the most crazy suddenly turn into a murderous rage. And there are lots of things about you, Mulder, that drive me crazy.”
“Really?” He sounded as if he hadn’t ever considered the idea.
“Well, yeah.” She blinked back at him, wondering why he hadn’t known that. “Seven years, Mulder, and that’s before I started sleeping with you. There were many things that made me nuts.”
“Like what?” Now he was just curious. Scully couldn’t believe he hadn’t caught on.
“Let’s start with the generally terrifying state of your apartment and end with the collection of coffee cups on your desk and forest of pencils in the ceiling.”
“The pencils help me think,” he shot back, looking slightly wounded. “You really dislike the state of my apartment?”
“I nearly killed myself on your running shoes the other night.”
“Oh,” he replied, looking somewhat hurt. “You never said anything.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not that big of a deal, Mulder. You’ve been a slob for as long as I’ve known you, and I accept that about you.”
“Gee, so magnanimous,” he muttered somewhat sourly, making Scully laugh.
“I know there are things about me that drive you crazy.”
“Yeah,” he admitted thoughtfully, considering for the briefest of moments. “The way you catalogue your canned goods in your cupboard.”
“You’ve looked at my canned goods?”
“It’s about the only thing I don’t burn, give me some credit,” he replied to her laughter. “The funny way you fold your towels in your bathroom.”
“You mean not balling them up in a corner?”
“The fact that your desk at the end of the day looks like no one has been there.”
“It’s called being neat.”
“Yeah, but I’d like to think that you had been there, all day, watching me quietly over those cute glasses of yours.
Scully was indignant at that. “I don’t watch you all day.”
The look he gave her was pointed. She blushed.
“Not all day, all right.”
“I’m flattered, Agent Scully.”
“Shut up,” she laughed, slapping his shoulder again for good measure. “And you can’t tell me you didn’t do the same thing.”
He smiled smugly. “I was much sneakier than you. You never noticed.”
Scully refrained from laughing outright. Since the shift in their relationship everything had changed. The pained efforts they once took to keep proprieties had relaxed. Their smiles were more common, lighthearted moments more frequent. She realized in that moment that she was happy. Perhaps the happiest she had been in a long time. Maybe ever.
“You know what, Mulder,” she mused leaning into the seats; finally cool enough to feel comfortable once again. “I don’t think that you and I could ever be like those agents.”
“What, the couple who beat the hell out of one another? Why?”
‘Because,” she shrugged, trying to find words to express a feeling she hadn’t given words to. “We’ve been through so much together. We’ve gone through hell and back. And no matter how crazy you’ve driven me, or I’ve driven you, we always come back to the fact that we can’t ever really function without the other.”
He considered briefly before nodding in agreement. “It’s true.”
A memory, long forgotten, of a creature wearing Mulder’s face, trying to strangle her, rose to mind. She had known in that moment that it wasn’t Mulder. And she knew without a shadow of a doubt that Mulder, no matter what was going on, would never, ever hurt her.
“I trust you,” she said simply, as one might mention love. It was a true statement. It felt good to say and it earned a soft smile from the man beside her.
“I trust you, too,” he replied, reaching a hand for hers briefly, squeezing it, before returning his fingers to the steering wheel.
It was perhaps as close as either of them was ever going to get to saying the word “love”. For now it was enough.
“So,” Mulder began after several long moments of silence driving along the Missouri highways, “we are in Kansas City. And this is the home of some of the best barbeque in the country.”
She knew where he was going with this. “I thought that you said Texas was.”
“Well, Texas is amazing, don’t get me wrong, I’d say it’s a tie with Kansas City. Different types of flavor, different specialties. Remember those burnt ends we had?”
Somehow, Scully had a feeling Mulder was going to use this opportunity to talk her into yet another trip for food he shouldn’t be eating. “If you die of high cholesterol, Mulder, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“When I die, Scully, it won’t be from high cholesterol,” Mulder waived her off. “Besides, live while you are young enough to enjoy it.”
“And our case?”
“Betty Templeton can wait for us to get a sandwich, right?”
Scully only smiled, realizing that there was no way she was ever going to win this argument.
Spring was giving way to a sticky, thick heat that blanketed the rolling prairie lands, sucking the silvery dew off the tender green grass and turning it into a sauna. Scully balked as they stepped up to their rental car outside of Kansas City International Airport and eyed the bright shell of blue sky above them disgruntled.
“Why does Kansas have to be so frickin’ hot?” Already her neatly coiffed hair had melted to the sides of her face, and all she wanted was to be inside the car with all the air vents blasting as hard as they could.
“Missouri,” Mulder replied, unlocking their vehicle allowing her to slip inside the baking interior.
“What?” She blinked, still preoccupied with why he hadn’t gotten the keys in the ignition yet and turned on the blessed air conditioner.
“We aren’t in Kansas, Toto, we are in Missouri. Kansas is about thirty minutes that way.” He pointed in a vague direction beyond their car that could be any direction as far as Scully was concerned. She assumed he thought it meant west.
“Kansas, Missouri, I don’t care, it’s pissin’ hot. Turn on the air.”
“Yes ma’am.” Mulder did as she asked, turning the engine over as he flipped on vents and pointed them in Scully’s face. Cool air began to pour out onto her sticky face, slowly beginning to unglue her suit jacket from her clammy skin.
“Better,” he murmured somewhere near her ear? She grinned, cutting a sideways mock-glare at him.
“We are on a case,” she reminded him primly. Their agreed rule, all extra-curricular activities would take a backseat to their work. That was the way it had to be for now. It didn’t mean that Mulder didn’t try his best to bend the rules when he thought he could get away with it.
“I was simply looking after your temperature…you were the one who was hot and all.”
He uttered “hot” with that double-entendre that made her roll her eyes even as she smiled. “Kansas, Missouri, obviously you still don’t know how to give a good pick up line.”
“Worked with you, didn’t it?” A dark eyebrow quirked up as he grinned, unashamedly, pulling the car out of the spot it was parked in. Returning to their previous topic of conversation, he nodded to a sign in the distance that read “Welcome to Kansas City, Missouri.”
“Despite popular misconception, the main part of the city of Kansas City is in fact in Missouri. It was named for the fact it sat on the Kansas River where it feeds into the Missouri River.”
Scully sighed, realizing she was going to get a geography lesson whether she liked it or not. “Does it really matter what side of the state line we are on?”
“I suppose it does to Betty Templeton. She’s moved to seventeen of them in the last two years.”
Scully nodded, recalling the details of the case. Two agents, investigating potential hate crimes against a couple of Mormon kids out on their missionary work, nearly kill each other on Betty Templeton’s doorstep. “And a string of similar incidents across every state. So if we are going with my doppelganger theory…”
“Your doppelganger theory,” he protested mildly.’
“Yes, mine,” she teased back, punching him lightly in the shoulder. “Doppelgangers are sources of dark, angry energy. There must be then a doppelganger of Betty Templeton around here somewhere.”
“Maybe she’s on the Kansas side,” Mulder quipped.
“Or vice versa,” Scully replied, glancing at the tracks of newly built homes over what had been, until recently, cow fields. Had any of this been here the first time they flew in? That had been years ago. It was strange to think, seven years, such a very long time.
“Seven years is a while to work together,” Scully mused, thinking of the two wounded agents laid up in the hospital.
“We’ve done all right?” There was a hint of speculative worry in Mulder’s voice, there despite the turn in their relationship of late. Did he really have any doubt? Somehow, Scully found that hopelessly endearing.
“We are perfect,” she assured him, patting a comforting hand against his right thigh. “I just am thinking of those two agents. Seven years together, you and I know better than anyone, you develop a bond. What in the world could break it so completely that you nearly kill the person you work with?”
“The nature of the doppelganger is that it feeds into its twin’s dark desires. Perhaps Betty Templeton’s dark desires are so powerful that they bleed onto everyone else in the general vicinity. And suddenly, all those petty conflicts, all those tiny slights, the things that drove you crazy over the years, they become blindingly annoying, to the point of making you want to kill someone.”
“Betty Templeton is thus working as a hate magnet. But for that to work, her doppelganger would have to be close by.”
“Won’t know until we talk to her, now will we?”
Somehow, Scully wasn’t so sure she wanted to. “I don’t know, Mulder. If two, seasoned veterans of the FBI nearly murder each other on the street, it makes me worry about getting anywhere near her.”
“Oh, come on,” Mulder chided, glancing at her with dubious amusement. “Scully, the great skeptic, is worried about a cute little red-head who wears bows in her hair.”
“Being a cute, little red-head, yes. We are mean.” She had seen the list of the two agents injuries. “Those two were partners for seven years, Mulder. How can you turn on someone like that?”
“Not everyone is us, Scully.”
“And that’s my point. If it could happen to them, what would happen to us?” She hated admitting it out loud, because it sounded so silly and foolish when she did. “I mean, you said it yourself, those things that drive you the most crazy suddenly turn into a murderous rage. And there are lots of things about you, Mulder, that drive me crazy.”
“Really?” He sounded as if he hadn’t ever considered the idea.
“Well, yeah.” She blinked back at him, wondering why he hadn’t known that. “Seven years, Mulder, and that’s before I started sleeping with you. There were many things that made me nuts.”
“Like what?” Now he was just curious. Scully couldn’t believe he hadn’t caught on.
“Let’s start with the generally terrifying state of your apartment and end with the collection of coffee cups on your desk and forest of pencils in the ceiling.”
“The pencils help me think,” he shot back, looking slightly wounded. “You really dislike the state of my apartment?”
“I nearly killed myself on your running shoes the other night.”
“Oh,” he replied, looking somewhat hurt. “You never said anything.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not that big of a deal, Mulder. You’ve been a slob for as long as I’ve known you, and I accept that about you.”
“Gee, so magnanimous,” he muttered somewhat sourly, making Scully laugh.
“I know there are things about me that drive you crazy.”
“Yeah,” he admitted thoughtfully, considering for the briefest of moments. “The way you catalogue your canned goods in your cupboard.”
“You’ve looked at my canned goods?”
“It’s about the only thing I don’t burn, give me some credit,” he replied to her laughter. “The funny way you fold your towels in your bathroom.”
“You mean not balling them up in a corner?”
“The fact that your desk at the end of the day looks like no one has been there.”
“It’s called being neat.”
“Yeah, but I’d like to think that you had been there, all day, watching me quietly over those cute glasses of yours.
Scully was indignant at that. “I don’t watch you all day.”
The look he gave her was pointed. She blushed.
“Not all day, all right.”
“I’m flattered, Agent Scully.”
“Shut up,” she laughed, slapping his shoulder again for good measure. “And you can’t tell me you didn’t do the same thing.”
He smiled smugly. “I was much sneakier than you. You never noticed.”
Scully refrained from laughing outright. Since the shift in their relationship everything had changed. The pained efforts they once took to keep proprieties had relaxed. Their smiles were more common, lighthearted moments more frequent. She realized in that moment that she was happy. Perhaps the happiest she had been in a long time. Maybe ever.
“You know what, Mulder,” she mused leaning into the seats; finally cool enough to feel comfortable once again. “I don’t think that you and I could ever be like those agents.”
“What, the couple who beat the hell out of one another? Why?”
‘Because,” she shrugged, trying to find words to express a feeling she hadn’t given words to. “We’ve been through so much together. We’ve gone through hell and back. And no matter how crazy you’ve driven me, or I’ve driven you, we always come back to the fact that we can’t ever really function without the other.”
He considered briefly before nodding in agreement. “It’s true.”
A memory, long forgotten, of a creature wearing Mulder’s face, trying to strangle her, rose to mind. She had known in that moment that it wasn’t Mulder. And she knew without a shadow of a doubt that Mulder, no matter what was going on, would never, ever hurt her.
“I trust you,” she said simply, as one might mention love. It was a true statement. It felt good to say and it earned a soft smile from the man beside her.
“I trust you, too,” he replied, reaching a hand for hers briefly, squeezing it, before returning his fingers to the steering wheel.
It was perhaps as close as either of them was ever going to get to saying the word “love”. For now it was enough.
“So,” Mulder began after several long moments of silence driving along the Missouri highways, “we are in Kansas City. And this is the home of some of the best barbeque in the country.”
She knew where he was going with this. “I thought that you said Texas was.”
“Well, Texas is amazing, don’t get me wrong, I’d say it’s a tie with Kansas City. Different types of flavor, different specialties. Remember those burnt ends we had?”
Somehow, Scully had a feeling Mulder was going to use this opportunity to talk her into yet another trip for food he shouldn’t be eating. “If you die of high cholesterol, Mulder, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“When I die, Scully, it won’t be from high cholesterol,” Mulder waived her off. “Besides, live while you are young enough to enjoy it.”
“And our case?”
“Betty Templeton can wait for us to get a sandwich, right?”
Scully only smiled, realizing that there was no way she was ever going to win this argument.