Title: Dropped (1/1)
Author: RocketMan >lbontger@wmcstations.com<
Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully belong to CC, 1013, and Fox. No fringe is
intended.
NOTES:::::This takes place in the First Season. hint of MS/UST.

Dropped

=====
"Sorry your mother dropped you on your head.
Maybe her mother dropped her too.
In the end we all get dropped, 
We all get black and blue."
--Carly Simon, "Didn't I?"
=====

The wheels were slipping under her and the wind gusted the bike across
the road. She skidded to a stop at the light and panted, waiting for it
to change and allow her to go on across.

She hated waiting for the light; some motorist always made a comment.
Some *male* motorist.

Not that it didn't secretly please her a little; it was just
embarassing.

She licked her lips and pushed some of her hair out of her eyes.

She'd taken up cycling as a way to keep in shape after some of Mulder's
more strenuous cases had left her with horrible aches. Riding her bike
toned her arms and stomach and excellently gave her leg muscles a
complete workout. 

After three months, she felt ready to tackle Mulder's X-Files and the
crazy monsters and supposed vegetables turned abductees.

The light changed and she ignored the construction workers who were
eagerly clapping and calling, and made for her block again.

A small hill that no longer winded her and then there was the back of
her apartment building.

She cut through the yards and squeeled to a stop at the back porch where
she kept her water bottle.

Taking huge gulps she downed nearly half of it and rolled her bike
around to the front, managing not to trample all of Ms. Rouse's flowers
on her way.

It was an effort to wrestle her bike up the stairs and then into the
elevator, but once there, it was easy.

The lift rose and she watched the numbers peeling away like orange rind
and blew her bangs from her face in time to the chimes.

It was stuffy in the car and she always felt like she sweat more there
than the entire two hour bike trail at the park.

When the floor rolled up and she yanked her bike into her hall, she
noticed that her door was standing open.

Immediately she thought of the strange shadow people that came for
Mulder sometimes to talk, and she thought of monsters hiding in closets
and under beds.

Licking her lips she eased her gun out of the pouch around her mountain
bike's handle bars, then slid up to her door.

She jumped when Mulder's body came barreling out at her.

"Mulder!"

"Scully!"

She gasped for breath and shoved her gun into the waistband of her gym
shorts, then ran a hand across her sweaty forehead.

He noticed.

"What are you doing in my apartment?" she said, frowning at his utter
lack of decency.

He held the door open as she wheeled her bike inside and then helped her
stow it in the huge hall closet.

"So?" she said again, collapsing onto the sofa.

"Well I called and you didn't answer and I came over and  . . . I got
scared."

Sheesh, the man was paranoid. "Mulder, people go out sometimes. People
do things like get groceries, buy clothes, ride their bikes . . . normal
people that is."

"Do I detect a note of sarcasm, Agent Scully?"

She shook her head. "Weariness, Agent Mulder."

He looked wounded and she sighed. "Not at you. I just rode through all
of the park in two hours and I come home and get the biggest scare of my
life . . . so far."

He watched her rub her eyes and push her stubborn hair out of her face.
It was curling on the ends from the humidity and her tight ponytail was
simply not keeping it all in. Her face was sun speckled and her freckles
showed up in sharp contrast to her sun faded blue eyes. He noticed light
streaks in her hair and the way her arms had a slight tan, while her
legs were evenly browned, not much, but good for a fair skinned person.

She licked her lip again and stood with a certain grace he couldn't
fathom.

"I'm going to take a shower, make yourself at home if you haven't
already."

He gaped at her and watched as she left him in the living room.

Her trust in him was remarkable. Here he had used the key she'd given
him for use in an emergency *only* and now she was telling him to make
himself at home and even taking a shower with him there.

She completely amazed him.

She scared him too.

How could he protect someone so naive, so trusting? If she grew jaded,
it would be his fault.
~~~~~
The shower helped get her mind back on track and as she snuck from the
bathroom to her bedroom, trying not to let him even get a glimpse, yet
wanting to let him get a little look, she knew his paranoia over her had
to stop.

She dried her hair with a towel and a quick five minutes with the blow
dryer, leaving it damp and unmanagable. She pulled it back into a
ponytail and dressed in a black tank top and kahki shorts, then went out
to the living room.

He was deep in one of his funks and she sighed.

"Mulder?"

He looked up and shook his head. She was surprised at how single minded
he could be. When he wanted to be depressed, he was depressed, when he
instead wanted to completely throw her off balance by noticing her,
commenting, teasing, he did that passsionately too.

"I hope you never become like me."

She smiled and said, "I hope I'm never as pathetic."

He refused to smile. "Scully, I hope you never have to see the things
I've seen, I hope you never lose this faith, this youthful enthusiasm
for life that you have."

"Mulder."

"No, I'm serious. I'll probably get you killed or kidnapped or hurt . .
."

She sighed and refused to be suck down into his black hole pessimism.

"Mulder, you know, stuff happens to poeple. Things die, go away, get
lost. When something happens, you deal with it. I can deal with it."

She watched him flinch. "But things that happen to everyone else happen
worse to me."

"Sheesh, Mulder. Did your mother drop you or something?"

He looked right at her and his sorrow pierced right into her.

"Or something."

"I'm sorry, Mulder. I just meant that . . . well, whatever happened to
you, with your sister . . . that happens to other people. You don't
think other people have their loved ones kidnapped or . . . just die?"

"I know they do. But this is me . . ."

"And if it happened to me?"

"I'd feel even worse."

She sighed and sat down on the couch next to him. "I guess I'm not going
to get you to think otherwise."

"Scully, if . . . if you got hurt I don't know what I'd do."

She silently watched his inner torture and wished she hadn't become a
Samantha to him.

"Mulder, if I get hurt, it was my choice. I don't have to stick around
you know. In fact, they're trying to get me to leave. But I won't. I
want the truth the same as you. Maybe you introduced me to it, but I
shook its hand, and I stayed to talk to it."

He smiled and leaned over and kissed her forehead.

"You're cute, you know that?"he said, then stood.

Shocked, she stared at him.

"What've you got to eat, Scully? I'm starved."
~~~~~
end
adios
RM