By Macspooky
macspooky@erols.com

This is a sequel to my old story "Second Case."  It can
stand alone, although it might be better to read the
other story first.  I will repost it along with this
one.

The series and characters still belong to the same
folks as always (CC, 1013, Fox, et. al.), although
lately I've had the feeling that the owners don't love
it anymore and don't want it.  I am making no money.
No copy write infringement is intended.

This is definitely a G. folks.  It is a response to the
"After the Fact" challenge to write about what M & S
did between "Deep Throat" and "Squeeze."

I've been out of the fanfic world for a while due to
illness, now passing, thank God.  I hope that this is
"up to snuff."  I want to thank my beta readers, Ten
and Ghill.  They are great editors and have been great
friends while I was recovering from surgery.

"Returning home" by macspooky@erols.com

Dana Scully repressed a shudder.  It seemed that the
return home from Ellen's Air Force Base was to be on an
old prop job.  She hated old prop planes.  The reality
was that she wasn't really crazy about flying in
general and wished she could adopt her partner's
relaxed attitude toward being in an airborne tin can.

She'd wanted to smack him on their first trip, which
was out to Bellefleur, Oregon.  Fox Mulder had
stretched out across the otherwise empty of the jumbo
jet with his headphones plugged in, totally relaxed,
while she had fought her fears and studied the case
file he'd provided.  When the plane hit turbulence and
she thought she would die of fright, he actually seemed
to enjoy it. He turned to her and smirked at her as she
forced herself to relax her grip on the armrest and
open her eyes to survey the damage.  Damn Fox Mulder
anyway.  He reminded her so much of her older brother
Bill at that moment, she could have killed him.

Mulder hadn't been any better on this case either.  He
kept information from her.  The case spooked her too,
spooked her in some ways more than their first case had
and that one had been pretty damn creepy.  The biggest
problem with Mulder was that he could be so endearing
at times.  Then, just when she decided that she might
really like him and enjoy working with him, he pulled a
stunt like ditching her.  Then, when she was ready to
kill him, he'd become endearing again.  Well, at least
in this way he was different than her brother. Bill was
never endearing, at least not to her.

The two of them made their way down the aisle of the
plane.  He had become, she realized, unsteady on his
feet, and although exhausted herself from dealing with
the hospital and the night she'd spent with her ill
partner, she steadied him with her hand.  Fortunately,
they had come to their assigned seats.  She put him by
the window, practically shoving him into his seat, and
sat beside him.  To her horror, a woman carrying an
active toddler took the seat next to her.  She was
pleased that it was a fairly short flight.  Parents
tried to save money by seating their children in their
laps, but the seats were too small.  One day soon, she
hoped, the airlines would put a ban on the practice.

Unfortunately, it wasn't such a short flight after all.
The air traffic controllers decided to hold a work
stoppage.  Their plane taxied out on to the runway and
came to a stop, a dead stop, as the pilot announced
that no one was going anywhere.  The toddler was not a
happy camper.  She twisted and turned and kicked,
planting a nice sized footprint on Dana's last clean
skirt.  No amount of admonishment or bribes would make
the child settle down.  Scully was so involved in her
own annoyance that she failed to realize for several
minutes that her partner, normally loquacious, was
being very quiet.  Already she had learned that a too
quiet Fox Mulder could be a dangerous thing.  Yes, too
quiet or too agreeable meant trouble.  She had found
out just what too agreeable meant in the room of that
crappy motel at Ellen's when he had agreed to shower
and pack, but instead had taken the car and left her
stranded, stranded and in the position of having to
save his butt.

She realized that he had turned deathly pale once
again.  She reached up and touched his forehead gently.

"Mulder, you are running a fever again.  Didn't you
take the antibiotic and Tylenol I put out for you this
morning?" she whispered.

"You know I don't like to take pills, Scully," he said,
wishing his head would stop throbbing.  Of course, she
knew no such thing.  They didn't really know each other
that well at all.

"Goddam it," she snapped not bothering to whisper.  She
had not taken him to the emergency room in the middle
of nowhere so he could toss the medicine in the trash.
She hadn't spent a restless night on the lumpy twin
motel mattress next to his, getting very little sleep
after he was released, so that he could ignore both the
ER physician and her expertise.

"Please don't use that kind of language in front of my
daughter," said the mother imperiously and in a not
very pleasant tone of voice.

"If that kid kicks me one more time, you'll hear far
worse than that," Dana snapped in reply, immediately
hating herself.  She loved kids and was usually more
patient.  Normally she would have been playing with the
little girl, trying to make her smile.  Suddenly
though, her life felt anything but normal, and damn,
she was tired.  She realized that her period was due.
Well, she'd blame her crankiness on that. "Besides,
it's the big kid on the other side of me that's really
driving me nuts." She said it out loud before she could
stop herself.  She was that aggravated with him for not
taking his medicine.

Mulder flashed a dirty look in her direction, despite
the fact that he was exhausted, but she decided to
ignore it.  After all, he hadn't been very sensitive to
her status as a professional when he had pulled away in
the car and left her standing alone in the motel
parking lot.  She decided that if he didn't like her
comment, that was just too bad.

The flight attendant passed and while the harried
mother huffed, just a little bit too intimidated to
reply to the tiny redhead sitting next to her, Dana got
a glass of water and took some pills out of her purse.

"Swallow or die," she told her partner using much the
same tone she'd used on the security agent the day
before when she'd pointed a gun at him and ordered him
into the car. "You are far too old to be so lacking in
sense."

Mulder reluctantly decided that swallowing was the
better part of valor.  So was silence at that point.
Still, he couldn't resist....

"Now I know how that agent felt when he was in the car
with you," he muttered.  In return, his partner glared.
"Look, Scully.  I know I should have....."

He never got to finish what he started to say because
the pilot announced that they had finally been given
clearance for takeoff.  With a mutter of "thank God,"
Scully turned her attention away from him.

The flight was not smooth, but the turbulence that was
always so unsettling to her had worked its magic and
put him to sleep.  Ultimately, the baby fell asleep
too, after a screaming fit when the plane ascended
putting pressure on everyone's ears.  It was a mercy
when they finally deplaned.

Mulder still felt light headed, although he thought he
was hiding it well.

"I'll just grab a cab and head on home," he told her.
"I'm feeling better now."

"Well, you don't look all that much better," she said
quietly.  "My car is here.  I'll drive you."

"No...that's okay...."

"Don't argue with me.  I'm tired of everyone arguing
with me," she said, but this time she gave him a smile.
"It's okay, Mulder.  Honestly.  I'd rather know you
were home safely.  You may be a pain in the ass, but
the Bureau has made you my pain in the ass, so I'll
drive you home.  Don't make me cuff you."

"I wouldn't have the energy to enjoy it," he sighed
making an effort to waggle his eyebrows, and knowing
that he was, in any case, defeated.  She snorted at his
quip and, parking him on a nearby bench, headed off to
the garage to get her car.

He made comments that could get him brought up on
charges of sexual harassment at times, but, she thought
he was probably pretty harmless.  Admittedly, she was
the one who had gone to his room and stripped to the
barebones when they had been in Oregon, and he had
never attempted to take advantage.  Really, what could
she say.  He had been far more professional at that
moment than she had.  If an occasional off color remark
was the price she had to pay, so be it.  At least he
wasn't crude like some of the other male agents, and as
far as she could tell, had told no one about the
incident.  There had been no crass remarks in the
hallway as she had expected.

Somehow, his place wasn't what she had thought it would
be.  She had thought that he would be in a townhouse in
Old Town, or perhaps one of the luxury condominiums
springing up around the area.  Everything about Mulder
screamed of old money, his Oxford education, and the
fact that he had been raised on Martha's Vineyard, the
expensive Armani suits he wore, and his elegant manner.
Instead she pulled up in front of a building set in an
old brick garden apartment complex located just on the
border of Alexandria and Arlington.  It was definitely
the low rent district, if indeed Northern Virginia had
anything that resembled a low rent district.

It was her plan to just pull in and let him out, but
when her partner got out of the car, he swayed and
caught himself on the car door.  She turned off the
engine and got his bag.

"I'm okay, Scully," he said.

"No you aren't," she replied.  She knew she'd better
carry his bag and escort him into his apartment.

One look at his place made her eternally grateful for
her apartment in Georgetown.  She promised herself
she'd never complain again about not owning her own
home. Her place was a paradise by comparison. While
Mulder collapsed on his leather sofa, she looked
around.  This place was old!  The furniture wasn't bad,
she supposed, although it looked as though it had been
picked up helter skelter and didn't match.  He had some
nice prints on the wall, but the drapes were probably
the worst she had ever seen. There was a large fish
tank that was pretty.  She had always liked fish.
There were also files tossed about everywhere, not to
mention dust bunnies on all surfaces.

"You need to eat," she told him remembering that he had
barely picked at his breakfast, something very unlike
him.  "Actually, I need to eat too.  I'm going out to
pick up some Chinese.  I'll be back in a few minutes.
Where's a good place to go?"

"It's okay...."

"Mulder, I'm starving," she whined.  "How about a
little cooperation here?  I mean, have a little mercy,
okay?"

"Okay," he said, knowing she had just played won a mind
game with him.  "Menu is by the phone on the desk.
They deliver."  He really just wanted to lay there with
his eyes closed, but knew he was hopeless to fight her
at that moment.  Besides, he supposed she was right.
He really hadn't eaten anything in 24 hours at least.

She ordered for them both and set out his pills.

"Mulder, you may not like to take pills, but you've got
a kidney infection from that blow you took.  You have
to take the antibiotics, and you have to drink a lot of
water.  If you don't, you'll be right back in the
hospital."

"I know.  I'll be good," he promised.

A few minutes later, the food came.  She went into the
kitchen for some plates, most of which seemed to be in
the sink.  With a roll of her eyes, she washed off two
place settings just as two roaches raced across the
kitchen counter.  Grabbing the nearest item at hand, a
not too clean spatula, she smashed them.

"Damn, you've got bigger roaches here than even in the
Navy housing," she called.  "That's disgusting,
Mulder."

"Gotta shake out your shoes in the morning, Scully," he
said, apparently unperturbed.  "I love my landlord,
too.  I hear they have a vacancy.  Interested?"

She did not bother to reply as she dished out the food,
and, shoving some files aside, they sat at his dining
table with the mismatched chairs.  He suddenly realized
that he was starving.  Once he had eaten a few bites,
he felt stronger and his head did stop pounding.  He
began to eat with relish.  She was about to put a
shrimp in her mouth with chopsticks and suddenly he
couldn't resist temptation. He snatched it away with
his mouth and swallowed.

"Hey," she protested, but then seeing his little boy
expression and the light in his eyes, she laughed.
"Okay, okay.  You can have the rest.  I'm full anyway."

"Thanks, Scully," he said digging into her container of
"crystal shrimp" not even bothering with the plate.

"You know, Mulder," she said quietly, "You are never
what I expect....ever."

"Pays to keep them guessing," he replied his mouth half
full.

She got to her feet.  "I'm not them, Mulder," she told
him gently.  "I'm your partner.  I can't watch your
back if you always keep me guessing.  I can't do it if
you ditch me either.  You take your medicine, drink
your water and rest.  I'll do the paper work and see
you in the office on Monday.  Think about what I've
said."

With that, she was gone.  She walked out closing the
door quietly behind her.  Fox Mulder looked after her.
He still wasn't sure whether or not he liked her.  Dana
Scully was feisty, rational, and cranky at times.
Logical minds like hers, generally speaking, drove him
nuts. In spite of their differences, however, now that
she was gone, the place felt very empty, and he found
himself looking forward to seeing her on Monday
morning.

He made sure he took his medicine that night and drank
plenty of fluids as prescribed.  He wasn't sure quite
yet, whether or not he could really believe her, that
she wasn't one of them.  After the past 48 hours, he
was starting to think and to hope that maybe, just
maybe, she wasn't. Perhaps she really was a partner and
not just a spy.

The End