Here We Are Again
(A response for a RP I am doing with knockknock_hack and hadotherplans)
“Why are we playing this game again?”
She was so still standing by the front window, I almost didn’t think she had spoken, didn’t see her lips move. I had promised her an end to the darkness. “I tried telling them no, I swear I did.”
“What did they promise this time?” She turned, infinite patients warring with the weight of seventeen years of the FBI’s demands on her, on us. “They cleared your name the last time, what will they give you in return? An apology for making you hide for six years? Sorry we convicted you of a crime you didn’t commit and dragging your name through the mud?”
Something like that, I thought ruefully. “It’s serial murders, Dana, you know that is the FBI’s purview.”
“And I know you were the best they ever had,” she snapped, blue eyes flashing angrily under her coppery hair. “They treated you as worse than a joke while you were there, and now they want you to run back again, clean up their dirty work. You’ve have never been anything but painfully honest with me, Mulder, this case is an X-file, isn’t it?”
I never could hide anything from her for long, even when I tried. “Yeah.” Scully nodded, snorting softly, shaking her head in the soft light from outside.
“They tried so long to shut you down, and they keep dragging you back for the very thing they wanted shut up. That’s it, if you solve this, they’ll reopen them, you’re life’s work?”
“Scully, I never said I was going to go back to the Bureau over this,” I tried to reassure her. It had been years, I was getting older, and frankly as much as I hated to admit it, my heart wasn’t as in it anymore. I’d given so much to this cause of mine, my life many times over, my family, my son. I couldn’t and wouldn’t risk the one thing in my life that kept me sane after all these years. “I’ll make sure they go to someone else who will understand the work and appreciate it. Things have changed, there are those who take the work more seriously now at the FBI.”
“Why can’t they get one of them to look into this?” A scowl settled on her delicate features. She knew she was losing the argument, and it wasn’t making her happy.
“They tried, and that’s when they asked me in.” I handed her the case file. “The victims were so random they couldn’t even get a beat on a profile. The MO seems to be young women, and whoever they are, they are a stabber, the only thing they seemed to have in common. I haven’t had a chance to really develop a full profile yet, I’ll need to see the victims and the ME reports.”
She nodded quietly, opening the file with practiced ease, eyes roving over the information quickly as I could see her process the familiar information. “Death seems straightforward, exsanguinations through multiple stab wounds. They bled to death.”
“Only each of them was alone at the time, no way in, no way out, and no way anyone was hiding in the closet prepared to turn them into a human pin cushion.”
“At least someone wasn’t going for their livers.” There was the hint of a smile, the tiny glimmer in her eyes. She could still joke about liver-eating, mutant monsters. “When do you head out?”
“In the morning, flight leaves for Miami first thing.” Her lips pursed slightly as she nodded, frowning down at the files in front of her. “I’ll call when I get in, and every hour on the hour just to let you know I’m safe.” I grin goofily at her, trying to elicit a smile. “All those women this time of year down in South Beach, bikinis, suntan oil, I’ll need to call home to make sure you protect me from their nefarious devices.”
This finally did earn a snort from her. “You think about assisting anyone in a bikini with her suntan lotion, Mulder, and you might not ever need to call home again.” She wasn’t serious, but there was that small hint of insecurity about her. After all these years and everything we’d been through, and Dana Scully still worried about my affections being stolen by some girl half my age dressed in nothing but string.
“You’re the only bikini-clad woman I’ll help with suntan lotion.” Where was that number she bought for our last vacation anyway? “Tell you what, if I wrap up early down there, maybe I can stay, give you a call, you can come down, we can have mojitos, hang on the beach, visit the only part of Florida we’ve ever been too that didn’t have crazy mutants, ghosts, or ocean monsters…”
“Miami does sound nice,” she murmured thoughtfully, glancing at the file, before pulling out her Blackberry, scrolling through the screen. “You know, I think I can manage a few days off from work, I don’t have any patients at the moment, and nothing is pending.”
“So I can call you in a day or two then? Get a good profile, pass it on to the FBI and locals, get a real hotel room…”
“I was thinking instead of coming with you.” She cut me off, determined, ignoring my stunned look as she handed me back the file. “I want this to be an end, Mulder, and if going with you to solve the case means you get what you want, then getting you home in one piece means I get what I want.” She leaned in close, smiling sweetly up at me. “And I might just be convinced to dig out that black little number for you for when this is all said and done.”
“Dr. Scully, you say the kinkiest things.” I teased. I was privately relived she was going along with me. I hated the idea of doing this without her.
“I know,” she grinned, her mouth grazing mine.
“Why are we playing this game again?”
She was so still standing by the front window, I almost didn’t think she had spoken, didn’t see her lips move. I had promised her an end to the darkness. “I tried telling them no, I swear I did.”
“What did they promise this time?” She turned, infinite patients warring with the weight of seventeen years of the FBI’s demands on her, on us. “They cleared your name the last time, what will they give you in return? An apology for making you hide for six years? Sorry we convicted you of a crime you didn’t commit and dragging your name through the mud?”
Something like that, I thought ruefully. “It’s serial murders, Dana, you know that is the FBI’s purview.”
“And I know you were the best they ever had,” she snapped, blue eyes flashing angrily under her coppery hair. “They treated you as worse than a joke while you were there, and now they want you to run back again, clean up their dirty work. You’ve have never been anything but painfully honest with me, Mulder, this case is an X-file, isn’t it?”
I never could hide anything from her for long, even when I tried. “Yeah.” Scully nodded, snorting softly, shaking her head in the soft light from outside.
“They tried so long to shut you down, and they keep dragging you back for the very thing they wanted shut up. That’s it, if you solve this, they’ll reopen them, you’re life’s work?”
“Scully, I never said I was going to go back to the Bureau over this,” I tried to reassure her. It had been years, I was getting older, and frankly as much as I hated to admit it, my heart wasn’t as in it anymore. I’d given so much to this cause of mine, my life many times over, my family, my son. I couldn’t and wouldn’t risk the one thing in my life that kept me sane after all these years. “I’ll make sure they go to someone else who will understand the work and appreciate it. Things have changed, there are those who take the work more seriously now at the FBI.”
“Why can’t they get one of them to look into this?” A scowl settled on her delicate features. She knew she was losing the argument, and it wasn’t making her happy.
“They tried, and that’s when they asked me in.” I handed her the case file. “The victims were so random they couldn’t even get a beat on a profile. The MO seems to be young women, and whoever they are, they are a stabber, the only thing they seemed to have in common. I haven’t had a chance to really develop a full profile yet, I’ll need to see the victims and the ME reports.”
She nodded quietly, opening the file with practiced ease, eyes roving over the information quickly as I could see her process the familiar information. “Death seems straightforward, exsanguinations through multiple stab wounds. They bled to death.”
“Only each of them was alone at the time, no way in, no way out, and no way anyone was hiding in the closet prepared to turn them into a human pin cushion.”
“At least someone wasn’t going for their livers.” There was the hint of a smile, the tiny glimmer in her eyes. She could still joke about liver-eating, mutant monsters. “When do you head out?”
“In the morning, flight leaves for Miami first thing.” Her lips pursed slightly as she nodded, frowning down at the files in front of her. “I’ll call when I get in, and every hour on the hour just to let you know I’m safe.” I grin goofily at her, trying to elicit a smile. “All those women this time of year down in South Beach, bikinis, suntan oil, I’ll need to call home to make sure you protect me from their nefarious devices.”
This finally did earn a snort from her. “You think about assisting anyone in a bikini with her suntan lotion, Mulder, and you might not ever need to call home again.” She wasn’t serious, but there was that small hint of insecurity about her. After all these years and everything we’d been through, and Dana Scully still worried about my affections being stolen by some girl half my age dressed in nothing but string.
“You’re the only bikini-clad woman I’ll help with suntan lotion.” Where was that number she bought for our last vacation anyway? “Tell you what, if I wrap up early down there, maybe I can stay, give you a call, you can come down, we can have mojitos, hang on the beach, visit the only part of Florida we’ve ever been too that didn’t have crazy mutants, ghosts, or ocean monsters…”
“Miami does sound nice,” she murmured thoughtfully, glancing at the file, before pulling out her Blackberry, scrolling through the screen. “You know, I think I can manage a few days off from work, I don’t have any patients at the moment, and nothing is pending.”
“So I can call you in a day or two then? Get a good profile, pass it on to the FBI and locals, get a real hotel room…”
“I was thinking instead of coming with you.” She cut me off, determined, ignoring my stunned look as she handed me back the file. “I want this to be an end, Mulder, and if going with you to solve the case means you get what you want, then getting you home in one piece means I get what I want.” She leaned in close, smiling sweetly up at me. “And I might just be convinced to dig out that black little number for you for when this is all said and done.”
“Dr. Scully, you say the kinkiest things.” I teased. I was privately relived she was going along with me. I hated the idea of doing this without her.
“I know,” she grinned, her mouth grazing mine.