Trial of Times

Chapter 8 (Scully)

I was behind the wheel when we finally arrived in Lexington. Poor Mulder had pretty much driven the entire time (with many attempts to trade off with him from me), and was exhausted. He was asleep in the passenger seat, and had been that way for almost a half an hour. At the next red light, I turned to face him. I wanted to wake him up to let him know we were almost there, but he looked so at peace that I couldn't bring myself to interrupt it. I wish he was like that all the time, but with our jobs it's not very easy to be in that state of mind.

I've seen him sleep before, but never have I seen him so calm and serene. His lips were slightly pursed, and his hair was falling to the right, the same direction in which his head was tilted. He almost looked like he was smiling, but I had no idea as to why. As the light turned back to green, I smiled and continued to drive. I began to think "Why would Mulder be smiling?". This question rattled through my head like a bouncy ball hitting my skull. I couldn't stop trying to think of possibilities.

The only good ones I could think of were him having a good dream, the case, or some weird alien thing that only he'd know and care about. What a dork. There was one other possibility, but I highly doubt it would be it. I would never expect it to be...
"Scully, you should've woken me up." Mulder's voice was raspy from just waking up, and I found it to be both cute and attractive. He rolled over and gave me a sleepy grin.

"Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty. We're almost to the motel." I grin back. Since being around Mulder, I've gotten better at quick and witty comebacks, but they're only really useful to one-up Mulder. He pretended to be offended and remarked "If anything, I'm Prince Phillip. We've both got good looks, great hair, and excellent damsel in distress saving skills. You can be my Sleeping Beauty because I'm always saving you. ".

Now it's me who's pretending to be offended. "Mulder I've saved your sorry behind almost as many times as you've saved mine.". Mulder goofily smiles and chuckles. "Yeah, you're right, Scully. But you can still be my princess if you want to.". I begin to blush and smile like a mad women. "Of course, Mulder. I've always known I was born to be a princess.". Oddly enough, Mulder was blushing too. "Mulder, if I did have to choose to be any princess though, I'd be Belle. She's the smart one, and I'd like to think that I'm smart too. If I'm not, then I'll begin to question how I got through med school." I shrug and smirk.

Mulder then does something that catches me off guard. He reaches for my hand, puts it in his, and looks straight into my eyes. "Don't say that, Scully. There's no doubt in my mind that you're smart, nor will there ever be. You're the most brilliant person I know, and that's the truth.". Now I'm back to looking as red as my hair. I weakly smile at him. "Thank you, Mulder. What would I do without you?" He smiles back and replies "You wouldn't.".

We arrived at the motel at around 6 pm. It was a quaint little establishment, but it was highly recommended in the area. We checked in, and walked to our two rooms. After I had dropped off my bags in the room, I walked to Mulder's. I knocked on the door and waited for him to answer. A few moments later, he did, and I was waved into to the dark room by a very tired Mulder. I walked across the small room to turn on a light switch. Once they were on, I saw Mulder sitting on his bed with a look on his face that could almost be considered guilty.

"Mulder, you've got that guilty look on your face again. What is it this time?" I raise my eyebrow at him and tap my toes on the floor. He raised his lowered head to meet my inquisitive gaze. "Well, Scully, you've got to promise not to get mad at me or anything." I stop tapping my foot and reply. "Ok, Mulder. As hard as it may be, I won't get mad at you."
He sighed and ran his hand through his thick brown hair. "Ok. So, there's a very good possibility that I might have forged a case file and this whole thing has nothing to do with work?". I began to laugh. "Mulder, I'm not mad. I suspected the case file being fake the whole time. But why did you drag me out in the middle of nowhere without a reason?".

Mulder started to blush again. "Um, well, I uh, wantedtospendtimewithyououtsideofwork." He said it so quickly that I couldn't understand him. "Mulder you what?" I stared at him with a confused expression on my face. Mulder shifted on the bed, obviously a bit nervous. "Scully, I dragged you out in the middle of nowhere so I could spend time with you outside of work. I'm sorry I just didn't flat out say it, but I knew you'd come if it seemed like it was related to work." He looked at me with puppy dog eyes that were just begging me to forgive him. It didn't take long for me to cave. I walked over to the bed and sat by him.

"Mulder I would've gone if you had told the whole story. I was wanting to spend time with you too. Now that we're here for four days, we'll get a lot of quality time." I smiled at him encouragingly. He returned it, and pushed my hair behind my ears. I leaned into him and put my head on his shoulder, and he wrapped his strong arms around mine. We stayed like that for a while, just me and him. We held onto each other like the world didn't matter, and in that moment it didn't. Once again, my intuition didn't fail me. My suspicions were correct.

Mulder had feelings for me too.

a/n
happy x files day!! im getting ready to watch the premiere, and in honor of it i thought id publish another chapter!! i hope you enjoyed some soft sculder!! there's more of that coming very soon!!
catch you later, aliens!!
- emma 🛸