By Shoshana
shoshana1013@yahoo.com

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT:  Gossamer and by request.

SPOILER WARNING:  Fire, Lazarus, Tooms

RATING:  PG-13

CLASSIFICATION:  VA

KEYWORDS:  Mulder, Scully, UST

SUMMARY:  Mulder and Scully, on a stakeout.

DISCLAIMER: These characters do not belong to me.

NOTE:  Thanks to Sallie, my wonderful beta reader!
 

~~~

A Good Man
By Shoshana
 

Saturday, April 30, 1994
11:52 p.m.

"Go ahead and get some sleep, Scully.  We may be here
all night."

Mulder cracked another sunflower seed inside his
mouth, separating
the kernel from the shell.  He used thumb and
forefinger to extract
the useless hull, flipping it out the cracked window
of the unmarked
Bureau car.  If Scully hadn't been around, he would
been working on
his personal best spitting distance, but she was, and
he had yielded
to her sensibilities on the matter a long time ago.

Over a year together and he still didn't know what
she'd ordinarily
do on a normal Saturday night.  She didn't seem to
date much, maybe
not at all.  He remembered she'd had a date last
August, that weekend
they had tracked the Jersey Devil.  After that,
nothing.

He wasn't about to pry into her business, but the
longer she lasted
as his partner, the more he wanted to know.  Once in
awhile, he'd
learn something new, something she'd allow him to hear
when her
defenses were down.  Like tonight, when they'd been
sitting for four
hours, waiting for a small-time criminal who'd been
ID'd in a brutal
robbery of an elderly woman.  The warning signs were
there; his
behavior was bound to escalate soon.

Violent Crimes had asked Mulder to evaluate the file,
and he had
volunteered to do stakeout duty.  He hadn't told
Scully until Friday
afternoon.  In fact, he hadn't planned on telling her
at all, but she
pilfered the file out of his briefcase at lunchtime.
She'd been
looking for something else and pulled the distinctly
marked file from
his carryall by mistake.

By the time he'd returned to his seat, she was ready
with a whole
battery of queries about the suspect.  Prevarication
was out of the
question; a note from the SAC was plastered on the
front of the
folder.  He invited her along, as if he had a choice
in the matter.
Scully would never let him go alone, not if she had
already evaluated
the risks.

Next time he'd have to be more careful with his
personal effects...
Aw, hell, what did it matter?  She always found out,
one way or
another.  Might as well put up with her constant
curiosity.  It made
her the best investigator, the best partner he had
ever worked
with.

The best friend, too.

She was icing on the cake.  Gravy on his mashed
potatoes.  The
finest hors d'oeuvre on the menu.

Mulder chuckled quietly, amused by the meanderings of
his mind.
Freud would have a heyday with his psyche, visualizing
this beautiful
woman as culinary delights.

He was a dead man if she ever found out.

"Mulder?"

"Yeah?"

Why was his voice so thin, she wondered.  "What's so
damn funny?"

"I thought you were asleep."

He popped another seed into his mouth.  She smiled at
his
nervousness.

"No.  Can't sleep.  You wanna tell me what you're
grinning about?"

"NO!" he said, with a little too much force.

Ah, so he was thinking about something potentially
embarrassing.
She decided to have a little fun on this deathly
boring stakeout.

"Tell me about Oxford, Mulder."

"What's to tell?  It's in England, sure, but it's just
like going to
school here, Scully.  You study all the time, go to a
pub instead of
a bar.  Get sick to your stomach a few times a week,
just like any
undergraduate.  Pull all-nighters.  Celebrate when
exams are over.  I
got a little more self-disciplined when I did my
advanced degree."

"What about Phoebe?"

The bomb was dropped.  She didn't want to seem nosy,
but she still
wondered about the infamous Ms. Green.  Mulder had
been pretty
forthright with his description of their relationship.
 Enough time
had passed since Scully had watched them dance (and
kiss) in the
Boston hotel.  She hadn't felt the least bit envious
at the time,
just annoyed at his unprofessional behavior.

Now that they'd been partners over a year, now that
she considered
him the best male friend she'd ever had--she was
curious, and not the
least bit disturbed by a twinge of jealousy, swiftly
tamped down out
of habit.  It was natural for her to be attracted to
Mulder.  They
were constantly together.  She hadn't been out on a
date in ages, for
goodness sakes.  She knew he occasionally went out,
but never seemed
to see the same girl twice.  She wasn't prying when
she asked about
Phoebe on a brisk spring night, was she?

Mulder shifted in his seat uncomfortably, picking
another shell out
of his mouth and tossing it out the window.  She
wanted to know more
about Phoebe.  Okay, he'd tell her.

"She cheated on me."

Mulder looked over at Scully.  He could see her
expression in the
moonlight, mouth wide open, eyes brimming with
surprise.  Was it so
unbelievable a woman had been unfaithful to him?  Did
she think he
always got his way?

The only evidence she'd seen of his casual social life
were voice
messages from women wanting second dates.  How long
had it been since
he'd had a second date?  How long had he compared
every one of them
to his beautiful partner?

He'd tried to distance himself from her last month by
insisting she
call him Mulder.  It was the only time she'd called
him Fox so far
and he'd nipped the habit in the bud.  Sure, he knew
why he did that.
He knew he didn't want another entanglement like
Diana.  Diana called
him Fox, in bed and out.  He'd be damned if his only
female friend
reminded him of her.  He was over her, right?

"I'm sorry."

Scully touched his shoulder and he flinched away.  The
movement was
involuntary; he usually welcomed her soft hands,
brushing against him
with concern or sympathy.  Not tonight.  Tonight he
was thinking too
much.  Thinking about what could not evolve between
them, what he had
sought to prevent last month.  He would not be able to
suppress his
feelings simply because she called him Mulder, not
Fox.  Her very
presence meant the world to him, excited him in a way
no other woman
had.  Dammit, he couldn't just get out of the car and
run this off.

He reached across the seat and touched her forearm
lightly.  "Don't
be."

She smiled and placed her right hand over Mulder's.
He smiled back
but the expression did not reach his eyes.  They
seemed full of
emotion, pain she could not decipher.  It was just as
well she didn't
know the source of that anguish.

"It's been a long time, Scully," he continued.  "I
wouldn't have
given her a single thought had she not come to the
states about that
case.  I'm glad I didn't find out until I was about to
leave England.
It made it easier to make a clean break."

"She's a bitch, Mulder."

"Why, Miss Scully, I don't believe I've ever heard you
say that word
before," he replied in a bad Southern accent.

"I'd never met Phoebe before."

She grinned at him, then moved his hand so she could
simply hold it
on the seat beside her.  He licked his lips nervously,
smiling
briefly.  She didn't let go, and said, "Jack cheated,
too."

Mulder couldn't contain a small gasp.  He couldn't
imagine being
unfaithful to Scully.  She was so talented, so
gorgeous, if he ever
had her, he'd never stray.  He hadn't even done so
with Phoebe or
Diana; he'd actually believed he was in love with each
woman, until
one deceived him and the other left for greener
pastures.

"It was inevitable.  I wouldn't marry him.  I was
attracted to him
but I found that I didn't 'love' him as much as just
'like' him.  I
guess it took almost a year to discover that fact.  We
had an
amicable parting, but I did find out about the other
woman
eventually.  The transition between me in his life and
her in his
life was a little too smooth."

Mulder was very conscious she was still holding his
hand and didn't
dare move it.  He asked curiously, "Did it last for
them?"

"No, like I told you months ago, Jack was an intense
person,
determined to catch criminals.  He spent way too much
time on the
road and in the heads of bad guys for her.  I think my
relationship
lasted as long as it did with him because I understood
his drive, his
mania for doing good.  I think I would have stayed
with him if I had
loved him.  He was a good man, you know."

"Yes, that was obvious, Scully,"  he responded,
feeling guilty for
ever doubting that.  He'd felt protective of Scully at
the time,
thinking Willis' motives were dubious from the start.

"You're a good man, too," she said, tightening her
grip on his
fingers.

Mulder stared at her, unable to speak.  Her expression
gave nothing
away, nothing that would tell him what her words
really meant.  He'd
have to figure it out himself, like always.  She could
be just as
enigmatic as ever when they talked like this, which
wasn't often, but
was always memorable.

Whatever she meant, he wasn't begging for an
interpretation.  He
knew they'd both retreat to the close friendship they
cherished, not
moving forward in any significant physical way.

Then why was she stroking his palm with her thumb,
driving him mad?
How long would she do that before he got the guts to
pull away?  When
would she realize the effect she had on his increasing
heart rate?

Right about now, he reckoned.  She dipped her head,
made a soft
noise in her throat and pulled her hand back to her
lap.  The
moonlight was dim, but he knew she was blushing.  Her
fair skin
glowed and she looked straight ahead, adjusting her
clothes with her
right hand.

His phone rang and he answered it.  The stakeout was
off, suspect
apprehended at the Canadian border fifteen minutes
ago.

It had been a good fifteen minutes for him, he
thought.  Perhaps he
could persuade her to spend another hour with him
before they called
it a night.

"Suspect captured, Scully.  No more stakeout.
Hungry?" he said
cheerily.

She turned toward him, smiling at his comically raised
eyebrows.
"Sure thing, partner.  I could eat."

fin

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