Hotels aren't the same alone

[faterootbeer]

"Mulder?" she asks the phone when he picks up. It's unspeakably early, but she knows he'll be awake in Pacific time.

(nudge: Mulder)

Comments

[loveicedtea]

"Scully." Part of him is surprised that she's awake this early, but the rest of him knew it was her as soon as the phone rang.

He wonders if she's feeling sick again. For the past several weeks, she hasn't been sleeping well. He'd almost asked her not to go on this trip, but that wouldn't have been fair. It isn't his place and the trip is necessary.

[faterootbeer]

"I can't sleep." She knows it's pathetic. He's a profiler. Milder knows her like Plan 9. There are a million things she could say over the phone but the one she can't gnaws at her stomach. She's not telling him she's awake to throw up.

"You were right. No one guessed Yeti when we had the frozen, mauled to pieces corpse. All boring, like airplane accident." She fakes being cheerful, admitting she's terrified will just take her to pieces on the phone.

[loveicedtea]

"I guess it's your job to knock some sense into them, then. You were hopeless at first."

He sits up in bed and leans back against the headboard. While she's away, she's letting him stay at her place. If anyone asks, his apartment flooded. It's true, of course(some backup in the filter for the fishtank), but really he doesn't feel at home anywhere else nowadays.

"Is anything bothering you?"

The fishtank gurgles in the background as he waits for her answer. Her silence doesn't sit right with him, but he lets her take her time.

[faterootbeer]

She can't lie to him. She can't really tell the truth over the phone either. Some revelations have to be left for in person.

"I hope I've marginally improved," she teases, then has to swallow, hard.

Maybe a half-truth is better than a lie. "I'm still sick."